Can we negotiate with terrorists?

A new Reuters/Zogby poll released today shows presumptive Democratic Party nominee Senator Barack Obama with an eight point advantage over presumptive Republican Party nominee Senator John McCain.

Pollster John Zogby said that he believes the poll numbers are the result of:

"attacks on Obama by Bush and McCain, who have been critical of his willingness to talk to leaders of countries like Iran. . .If anything, he said, it reminded voters of McCain's ties to Bush, whose approval rating is still mired at record lows."

"The president is so unpopular. To inject himself into a presidential campaign does not help John McCain, particularly when McCain is tied to Bush," Zogby said.

But Mr. Zogby is that what Bush really did? Did he really inject himself into the presidential campaign? I don't think so. Bush's words were clear:

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," the President said to the country's legislative body, "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is –- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Nowhere in this quote was Barack Obama mentioned, but for some reason Barack identified with this quote. Maybe because he is just like that foolish Senator who believed that if he had only had the chance to talk with Hitler, WWII would have been averted. Barack Obama and George W. Bush have fundamentally different philosophies about human nature. Obama foolishly believes that man is good, and Bush believes that man is fallen. Obama believes that evil doesn't really exist, rather different societies and different peoples have differing and legitimate worldviews and that if we could only "understand" Iran's point of view we could understand why they commit terror and implement policies to help them change. Bush however gets it right. Bush fundamentally understands that Iran and the other terrorists rogues have evil in their hearts and are fundamentally wrong to believe that there is any legitimate excuse to kill 3,000 Americans in New York because you do not like the fact that our Government supports the Saudi regime or any other excuse. This is why Bush has been successful in stopping terrorists these nearly seven years since 9/11, because he understands that evil lurks in their hearts and that we can never negotiate with such persons until they change first (such as Quaddafi or are removed from power).