| John Kerry said what strikes me as a remarkably stupid thing in California.
You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.
Was this supposed to be a laugh line or something? [UPDATE: Apparently, it was supposed to be a laugh line as a dig at President Bush, but he totally screwed it up. See below.] It sure isn't very funny, and it's hard to see it as suggesting anything other than that the armed forces are full of losers who couldn't handle high school.
Obviously, that's not true, and I don't believe for a second that Kerry thinks that's the case. Nevertheless, his comment was way off base, and he should retract it -- precisely because it doesn't reflect what he really thinks.
Instead, however, after being hit with the predictable denunciations from Tony Snow and from Republicans, Kerry released a strongly-worded counterattack:
Statement of John Kerry Responding to Republican Distortions, Pathetic Tony Snow Diversions and Distractions
Washington – Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts desperately distorting Kerry’s comments about President Bush to divert attention from their disastrous record:
“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.
I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.
The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.
Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we’re going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq.”
Look, in general, I don't disagree with anything in that statement. Problem is, it's not really responsive to the issue of his comment, which does lend itself to being interpreted the way Tony Snow et al. are interpreting it. Confess error, John, and move on.
HT: PolInt.
UPDATE: This, apparently, is what Kerry actually meant to say -- it's apparently a line he's been using a lot:
"I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."
Oh, ha ha, I get it. Bush is intellectually lazy, so he got us stuck in Iraq. Not the funniest line I've ever heard, but at least it makes sense.
Supposedly Kerry was doing a presser at 2 pm to talk about this. I haven't seen any reports about it yet. Let's hope he just explained what he meant to say, apologizes for the screw-up, and gets back to business. |
