Thats my senator! When they speak of an “October surprise,” usually they mean bringing out something that will damage your opponent’s campaign just before the election, not your own side.
Sen. John Kerry was campaigning in California for the Democrat candidate for governor, when he came out with the most bone-headed, ham-fisted comment. Fortunately, it’s also short and ripe for soundbiting so it will be repeated endlessly over the next week. Speaking to a crowd of college students, he encouraged them to stay in school because if they make the make most of it they “can do well; if you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” Now everyone, including the mainstream media and apparently much of his audience, took that to be a slap in the face to our servicemen and women serving with distinction and honor in Iraq as dumb hicks too stupid to get real jobs.
Recriminations were fast and furious. Paul Morin, national commander of the American Legion, had perhaps the best response: “A generation ago, Sen. Kerry slandered his comrades in Vietnam by saying that they were rapists and murderers. It wasn’t true then and his warped view of today’s heroes isn’t true now.” His own party is even distancing itself from him, with several candidates canceling scheduled appearances with him this week before the election.
Kerry’s angry non-apology makes it worse
update: The troops respond to John Kerry. Now that’s a joke, Senator.
Technorati Tags:Iraq, Kerry, politics, uneducated troops
Even Bill Clinton knew that when you find yourself in a hole, you stop digging!!
What a twit!
Did you guys know Kerry was an altar boy?
I made a bumper sticker to commemorate the event!
Jason: What’s your favorite Dumocrat Kool Aid flavor?
Jason,
The problem is almost more that he won’t take responsibility for what he did do. If he had immediately gone out and said, “I misspoke, and I am sorry if it offended anyone,” we wouldn’t even be talking about this. Given his long history of this type of criticism – just last year accusing US soldiers of terrorizing Iraqui women and children in their homes at night – he ought to have set the record straight. What did he do? He attacked. He got up on his high horse, dragged out the “I’m a war hero” routine, and attacked people from correctly pointing out that the plain meaning of his words were insulting.
It reminded me of Hillary Clinton blaming her husband’s problems on a vast right-wing conspiracy. Today, on his official Massachusetts constituent web site, he said, “I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform.” He regrets his words were misinterpreted? What kind of apology is that. I have two sons (one in uniform) and I tell them one of the most important things a real man does is own up to his mistakes. People will forgive a mistake, but have nothing but contempt for a weasel.
On top of everything else, the joke, even as written, is inappropriate, immature, inaccurate, and plain not funny. When will we stop hearing Bush is stupid jokes? They just aren’t funny. Especially in wartime – what do you think the enemy makes of this nonsense. It’s bad enough for us to be arguing with one another, but it’s insane for important political figures to be ridiculing the commander in chief to please an audience of community college students.
It was evident in 2004 that Kerry, although more articulate than Bush, is much less intelligent. The notion that such a man – after insulting the head of the Iraqi government – could accomplish anything through diplomacy is laughable.
Then of course he is a traitor.