"It is a serious error on the part of Sen. Obama that shows naivete and inexperience and lack of judgment to say that he wants to sit down across the table from an individual who leads a country who says that Israel is a stinking corpse," McCain said.

Let's apply that logic to some past events then. Nixon goes to China. Reagan calls the USSR the "evil empire" and proceeds to work on START. Reagan sells weapons to the Iranians to fund the contras. The infamous Rummy shaking hands with Saddam Hussein picture. The current 6 way talks concerning North Korea. Detente. I could go on, but you get the point.

So who don't we talk to now? Chavez, Hamas, Morales. Who have we pulled numbers on or tried to? Allende, Mossadegh, Ortega. What do they all have in common? Welcome to democracy. They all won control of their countries or areas (in the case of Hamas) by popular acclaim.

Not understanding the idea that "To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war" is a failure. It doesn't mean you give up or make deals that make no sense (the failure of Neville Chamberlain, who looked into the eyes of Adolph Hitler and got a "sense of his soul," to borrow a phrase about a different botch). It means you use the brain you were given to see if there is another route other than to blow the crap out of things indiscriminately. Sometimes you end up making with the war-war, but ignoring the jaw-jaw part is a "miserable failure," which Google searches quite correctly. (It no longer goes directly to W, all the links however still talk about it)