From a reader:

Jonah, I’m afraid your theory as to why liberals reject the analogy between Osama and Adolf is predicated on the assumption that the netroots speak for all liberals. A more straightforward explanation is that there is no way to equate the behavior of a man who brutally murdered 6 million Jews to someone hiding in the mountains of Pakistan, even given that he has funded and sponsored the horrific outrage of 9/11. If you post this comment, please don’t publish my name.

Me: Actually, I think this is wrong on all counts. First, comparing Osama to Hitler circa 1944-45 would be absurd, but that’s not what Bush was doing. He was comparing Osama to the obscure loser Hitler of the 1920s. And in that comparison, the equation is entirely reasonable (if not necessarily ironclad of course). Indeed, the Osama of 2007 is a more crystal clear threat to people living in 2007 than the Hitler of the early 1920s was to people living in the 1920s.

Secondly, I don’t think my post depended on asserting that the netroots speak for all liberals. That certainly wasn’t my intent. I merely offered a theory as to who Hillary was speaking to in her press release. Other theories as to why she said what she said may be valid as well. Perhaps she was trying — as the reader seems to be doing — to make Bush sound like he was minimizing Hitler’s crimes. But a fair reading of Bush’s comments doesn’t support that on the merits.

For the record, Bush said:

History teaches that underestimating the words of evil, ambitious men is a terrible mistake. In the early 1900s, the world ignored the words of Lenin, as he laid out his plans to launch a Communist revolution in Russia — and the world paid a terrible price. The Soviet Empire he established killed tens of millions, and brought the world to the brink of thermonuclear war.
In the 1920s, the world ignored the words of Hitler, as he explained his intention to build an Aryan super-state in Germany, take revenge on Europe, and eradicate the Jews — and the world paid a terrible price. His Nazi regime killed millions in the gas chambers, and set the world aflame in war, before it was finally defeated at a terrible cost in lives and treasure.
Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. And the question is: Will we listen? America and our coalition partners are listening. We have made our choice. We take the words of the enemy seriously. Over the past six years, we have captured or killed hundreds of terrorists. We have disrupted their finances. We have prevented new attacks before they could be carried out. We removed regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that had supported terrorists and threatened our citizens, and in so doing, liberated 50 million people from the clutches of tyranny. (Applause.)

As Jim says, I see nothing wrong with disagreeing with the analogy Bush is making. But I see nothing offensive about it either.