Renouncing Bush's Worldview

Dan Froomkin
WashPost

A whole speech about Islam, and President Obama didn't use the word "terrorists" even once?

Obama's conservative critics, along with some media observers, are up in arms -- which is a real testament to how effectively the Bush administration linked the one word to the other.

Indeed, it was a key part of its concerted campaign to stoke the public fears that made possible a global war that, in terms of scope and tactics, went far beyond anything that would have otherwise been remotely acceptable to the American public.

Here's how Politico's Josh Gerstein described Obama's offense:

In a nearly 6,000-word address Thursday extending an olive branch to the Muslim world, President Barack Obama managed never to utter the one word that comes to mind most often when many Americans think about Islam: terrorism.

Obama's attempt to "decouple Islam entirely from those who perpetrate violence" was "just one aspect of his speech that seems sure to draw fire from conservatives, and particularly those who are strong supporters of Israel, Gerstein wrote.

(Continued here.)