Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats are up in arms at President Bush’s remarks yesterday in Israel that criticized those who want to appease terrorists. Although he wasn’t mentioned by name, Obama and others, such as Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, seem to think the president was referring to him specifically.

The Washington Times’ Jon Ward reports that Ed Gillespie, counselor to the president, told reporters aboard Air Force One today that he was “surprised and curious as to the reaction,” adding that the concern prior to the speech was that people would think the president’s comments were a slap at former President Jimmy Carter and his meetings with Hamas, not Obama and his foreign policy stance. Implying that the reaction by Obama and his fellow Democrats may have been driven by the media’s interpretation of the speech rather than the words in the speech itself, Gillespie went on to say, “We don’t necessarily live in a world where people just report what the president says, they have to report what they think it means.”