Funny, you don’t sound British. Spell “labor”. 
No, I’m not being manipulated. I’m fed up with a politician who has a history of making boneheaded remarks that alienate large segments of the voting public.
And gosh, isn’t his timing wonderful?
Isn’t that also “Lurch”?
Unless Kerry was running for office this year, what’s the big deal? At worst, the former Presidential Candidate looks like an insensitive ass. It’s not as if his joke was endorsed by anyone, or that he was caught stuffing hundred-dollar-bills into the orificies of underaged naked teens…
Kerry suffers from hoof’n’mouth.
To anyone who cares to understand his algerbraic use of the language, he’s spot on. His apparently flip-flopping vote comments about Iraq during his presidential bid makes perfect sense to anyone who is a Washington insider and/or knows parliamentary procedure. But the electorate has neither the inclination nor the intellect to understand Kerry’s message when all they want are meat and potato answers.
The real concern is how much damage has this caused and whether the neocon spinmiesters can flog this gaffe with sufficient force and direction to scare the fence-sitters into believing the boogeyman is not them.
Let’s not get carried away about this. It was a minor faux pas, and I can’t see it making a difference in this election. Kerry isn’t running anyway. Best case, it blows up later and kills his chance to run for prez again. Good. The Democrats need to pick someone who can win anyway!
Sure. D-A-V-I-D C-A-M-E-R-O-N.* Easy. 
*90% of the board will not get this joke. The other 10% won’t find it funny.
So clear this up for me: are you angry because you believe Kerry insulted the troops, or because he said something the Republicans could misquote against him?
I think he was more likely talking about Bush than about soldiers but even if he was talking about soldiers, a statement that people who do poorly in school are likely to end up in the military is not the same thing as as saying that everyone in military is stupid.
This I agree with. I can’t see many people who are going to change how they vote in their local elections over this. Kerry is not on any of the ballots. This is just grasping at straws on the part of the right.
“The majority”? Well, to be pefectly accurate, I have not reviewed all of the taped material on all of the anit-war protests available. However, I don’t think it is too wrong for me to say that there is a segment of the US population that see’s the anti-Iraq-war movement as having strong support in the colleges. Rightly or wrongly, the impression is there.
The Democratic National Party (and Senator Kerry) may also carry the same false impressions. I realise that all this is guesswork, as I seemed to have misplaced my mind reading cap.
But if it does, that could explain why Sen. Kerry felt that he could make the joke he did, in front of the audience he was in front of.
Let me ask this: Do you think Sen. Kerry would have made the similar joke (that is, about Iraq being goofed up) speaking at a VA hospital, or in front of a VFW group? I do not. I see him promising the Veterans more, or at least, secure, benefits.
I don’t believe he is being misquoted or misconstrued. I think he is just stupid enough to try to ingratiate himself to a college audience by telling them how much smarter they are than the military. And I think (for reasons I explained above) that his saying that his comments were directed at Bush is bullshit.
And yes, I am angry at him for insulting the military. That is an incredibly boneheaded thing to do. And to compound the gaffe, he makes it a week before a critical election, handing the Republicans a pretty rhinestone with which to distract voters.
The guy is a grade A idiot, and I wish he would do his party a favor and shut the hell up.
OK, let me explain this to you. Members of Congress, and especially presidential candidates, and **especially **former military guys, are supposed to hold up service in the military as a high honor, and an act of courage. It is supposed to be something to be proud of, and something you’re proud you’re son or daughter chooses. They’re not supposed to characterize it as what happens to you if you flunk out of school.
Is it that hard to understand?
Allow me to further state that I think this story, while entertaining due to it’s timing, is not going to be changing any voter’s minds.
How do you rationalize that Kerry’s level of education and grades are comparable to Bush’… in fact his grades are lower.
Basically Kerry would be saying that he would do just as bad a job in Iraq… alternatively he was counting on his fans in the media not to bring that up.
And i’ve agreed with that. I’m just saying there’s a big difference between saying the Iraq War is wrong and saying that the troops should all resign rather than take part, and that there’s accordingly a big difference in the amount of people saying the former rather than the latter - and that there may be a large following among US colleges for the former, but you can’t extrapolate to mean the same thing for the latter.
Again, big difference between saying “the war is bad” and “the troops should quit” - and I think that actually there’s a reasonable amount of support for the former among veterans and people currently serving, whilst the second would probably be met with considerable booing.
Then you *are * being manipulated, and you are going to feel really silly when you see his comments in context. I’ve heard it, and was Bush blah blah, Bush blah blah, stuck in Iraq Bush blah blah. It makes no sense to interpret it Bush blah blah, Bush blah blah, The troops are stoopid, Bush blah blah.
OK, if I’m being manipulated, then Kerry stupidly handed Republicans an opportunity to manipulate smart folks like me on the eve of an election.
Kerry still comes off as a moron either way.
Oh the irony…botching a line while trying to poke fun at the ultimate line-botcher.
I will grant you that one.