More Thoughts On Kerry
LaShawn Barber is defending Kerry, and she's no Kerry supporter. She makes the point that he probably didn't mean what he said, that he botched what he was supposed to say. She even has what a "Kerry aide" says he was supposed to say:
“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.”
I'm sorry, but that's not really that close to this:
“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.”
Also, even if he DID make this mistake, he has completely given himself away in that he refused to clarify and apologize immediately. Instead, he went on an insane, frothing-at-the-mouth rant, blaming everyone but himself. Doesn't really engender much confidence in his sincerity. I think what came out of his mouth is what he really believes. As many of LaShawn's commenters point out, and as we have pointed out here, Kerry's record regarding his lack of respect for the military is very long. He could have killed this firestorm if he had just said that he made a mistake and apologized. However, his ego won't allow him to admit an error, apparently...not that I believe it was an error, of course.
As an aside, did you see the President's speech last night, I mean other than his comments on Kerry's statement? He was *good*.
JASmius: Even if the "Kerry aide"'s version is what he was supposed to say, that doesn't translate to it being what he meant to say. At best it was a freudian slip from a man notorious for his lack of verbal discipline, revealing what the rest of us have known for thirty-five years is in his heart. Such is his stratospheric hauteur that he can neither admit to rhetorical imperfection nor cease believing he can fool the public into disregarding his entire political career these incessant boners keep highlighting like a neon facade in Vegas. Hence his disorganized, incoherent attempts at damage control - he exposed himself, at the worst possible time for his party, and it didn't go unnoticed. His deodorant is really getting a workout this week.
But even giving Barber the benefit of the doubt, the same Kerry comments directed at President Bush are just as outrageous and dishonest. Bush did, after all, get better grades at Yale than Kerry did; Kerry did, after all, vote in favor of the Iraq war resolution based upon the same premises and intelligence information on which Bush proposed it; and the purpose of Kerry's words is the same either way: to undermine public support, not for the war in Iraq, but for the overall GWOT of which Iraq is but the central front.
It can be argued that Kerry's stubborn adherence to the same tired, cynical, discredited, politically suicidal "anti-war" bromides reveals in him the very lack of smarts and intellectual torpor that he claims was meant to be directed at the President rather than our men and women in uniform. Ironic that said argument would be the most complimentary thing that could be said of Lurch and his seditious ilk.
UPDATE: The troops respond.
UPDATE II: Kerry's slur as 2006's Wellstone funeral moment? Looks like an outstanding candidate to me.
“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.”
I'm sorry, but that's not really that close to this:
“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.”
Also, even if he DID make this mistake, he has completely given himself away in that he refused to clarify and apologize immediately. Instead, he went on an insane, frothing-at-the-mouth rant, blaming everyone but himself. Doesn't really engender much confidence in his sincerity. I think what came out of his mouth is what he really believes. As many of LaShawn's commenters point out, and as we have pointed out here, Kerry's record regarding his lack of respect for the military is very long. He could have killed this firestorm if he had just said that he made a mistake and apologized. However, his ego won't allow him to admit an error, apparently...not that I believe it was an error, of course.
As an aside, did you see the President's speech last night, I mean other than his comments on Kerry's statement? He was *good*.
JASmius: Even if the "Kerry aide"'s version is what he was supposed to say, that doesn't translate to it being what he meant to say. At best it was a freudian slip from a man notorious for his lack of verbal discipline, revealing what the rest of us have known for thirty-five years is in his heart. Such is his stratospheric hauteur that he can neither admit to rhetorical imperfection nor cease believing he can fool the public into disregarding his entire political career these incessant boners keep highlighting like a neon facade in Vegas. Hence his disorganized, incoherent attempts at damage control - he exposed himself, at the worst possible time for his party, and it didn't go unnoticed. His deodorant is really getting a workout this week.
But even giving Barber the benefit of the doubt, the same Kerry comments directed at President Bush are just as outrageous and dishonest. Bush did, after all, get better grades at Yale than Kerry did; Kerry did, after all, vote in favor of the Iraq war resolution based upon the same premises and intelligence information on which Bush proposed it; and the purpose of Kerry's words is the same either way: to undermine public support, not for the war in Iraq, but for the overall GWOT of which Iraq is but the central front.
It can be argued that Kerry's stubborn adherence to the same tired, cynical, discredited, politically suicidal "anti-war" bromides reveals in him the very lack of smarts and intellectual torpor that he claims was meant to be directed at the President rather than our men and women in uniform. Ironic that said argument would be the most complimentary thing that could be said of Lurch and his seditious ilk.
UPDATE: The troops respond.
UPDATE II: Kerry's slur as 2006's Wellstone funeral moment? Looks like an outstanding candidate to me.
posted by Jennifer at 7:32 AM
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