Yesterday Kerry said the following to a group of college students… “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, 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.”
Amid criticisms from McCain and others he now claims it was a botched joke and that he was referring to Bush getting us stuck in Iraq.
That argument would suggest that Kerry would have gotten us even stucker.
So do you believe him or is he just trying to crawl out of a hole?
Eh. It was a dumb joke. Kerry is not especially known for his rollicking sense of humor. This is a non-issue, excpet in the sense of Kerry is teh suxx0r.
The joke or comment appears to be open to at least two interpretations. Do poorly in school, and you’ll end up in the army, serving in Iraq. Or, do poorly in school, and you’ll end up a dumb president like GWB, stuck with a messy war in Iraq. As the OP noted, Kerry is in a poor position GPA-wise to call Bush a poor student. Neither interpretation reflects all that well on Kerry, IMO, but it doesn’t seem like a big deal.
It is ludicrous to interpret this joke about Bush by a decorated veteran as any kind an insult of the troops.
Based on the threads you have started in the last week, I can only conclude the prospect of the Dems taking over Congress has really got you spooked, **What the … !!! **.
I had assumed, reading the quote, that Kerry meant *Crotalus’s first interpretation. Stupid. After all, there are officers (just about every one of which is college educated) on the ground in Iraq right now, just as there were officers on the ground in Vietnam. Plus, nowadays, a large percentage of enlisted people are also college educated, or at least pursuing a college education.
Anyway, upon reflection, I suspect that Kerry really was thinking of the second interpretation. After all, he knows, based on personal experience, that officers do go to war. So he was making a stab at Bush’s reputation for stupidity. Now, I have no doubt whatsoever that Kerry thinks that he is smarter than Bush. However, basing that claim on their college grades and study habits was pretty weak, considering the evidence.
As I said, it was a stupid thing to say. Is it a big deal? Probably not. But it was definately stupid.
What’s offensive about the first possibility? I can see it that way too Don’t screw up in school so you can get a good job and not have to end up as a bullet sponge in Iraq. Why should anyone be offended by that?
Especially since it’s true to a large extent. Most of the people I know who have gone into the army were not our best and brightest. It seems most in our armed forces are economically or intellectually disadvantaged. It’s unfortunate, but most intelligent people don’t want to be in the armed forces. I don’t think Kerry meant the joke that way, but even if he did, he is just stating the obvious.
Gee, Diogenes, you may be as politically tone deaf as Kerry. The implication is that you must have been a crappy student to have wound up in Iraq. You don’t see how that might be the slightest bit insulting to members of the military and their families?
The South is big on military tradition, so maybe that colors my opinions, but God damn. Do you really think that everyone who joins the military does so because they have no other options? I know plenty of smart and educated people who are or were in the military.
That is to say nothing of the many well-educated and well-meaning folks who signed up for the National Guard thinking they might like to assist in disaster relief, and little realizing they would wind up in a combat zone.
That is some elitist, tone deaf noise you and Kerry are spouting.
The “botched joke” explanation makes more sense than the “guy with three purple hearts calls troops idiots” explanation. Boehner’s call for all Democrats to repudiate the comment is especially funny. Republicans are seizing on this because they’re desperate to start a controversy that they’re not involved in. I doubt this will do anything, because you can’t talk about the soldiers without talking about who put them in Iraq. Ho hum.
Where was this version of John Kerry two years ago?
Well, I was in the military and my experience was that a large percentage of enlisted troops were exactly that. There were a few intelligent enlisted people here and there (like me) but by and large, the military was a haven for fuckups and idiots. I thought everyone knew that.