As the president was telling the good people of Texas that the Democrats did not want to win in Iraq, his former rival was in California insulting the troops.Posted on 10/31/2006 7:50:16 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
George Bush and Dick Cheney have been working overtime (and racking up air miles) to rally conservative stalwarts in the final days before the elections, and on Monday they got a gift from an unexpected source: John Kerry.
As the president was telling the good people of Texas that the Democrats did not want to win in Iraq, his former rival was in California insulting the troops.
Or so Mr Bush and his spokesman would have us believe. And when you review Mr Kerry’s comment, it’s hard to argue:
"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," he said, eliciting chuckles from the students.
The president demanded an apology, and some furious military bloggers also pounced, calling Mr Kerry a disgrace.
Senator Kerry came out swinging in response, saying he had botched a joke aimed at the president - and that he would apologise to no-one for his criticism. But his tough talk reminded me of an old political maxim: If you're explaining, you're losing.
John Kerry clearly thinks he is going to run for president again in 2008. If he doesn’t have jokes funnier than this, he's going to lose again. And in the meantime, he's not doing his party any favours this year.
Richard Greene is the BBC News website's Washington reporter
Yup, it has legs.
Yup..I guess his "nuanced" explanation of his own stupidity didn't have gravitas.
********************************************
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.”
See his statement above.....
Even the BEEB tossed him under the bus.
Yup...he used a shovel on that piece.
Doesn't he have any advisors?
*If you're explaining, you're losing*.
I LIKE THAT!
If it really was a botched joke, there shouldn't have been a seconds hesitiation about offering an apology to the troops. The fact that he immediately became so defensive about it, shows that he blew it, BIG TIME.
It's pretty odd that this was posted on the BBC which clearly detests GWB and the Pubbies in general.
OK to summarize his statement, John Kerry has heard the testimony of democrats who had witnessed Republicans cut off the limbs of children, attach telephone wires to to people and turn up the power, and otherwise violate the rules of campaigning at every level of the party in a manner similar to JENGIS CAAAAN.
Yah John F'n, you have never criticized our troops before. You are a narcissistic nit.
This is a once in a lifetime thing...it is bigger than Ed Muskie crying.
No...he already knows it all...except how to deliver a punchline.
My My, Kerry certainly does seem to be in a vietnamn style quagmire again
LOL Sweet!
When the BBC see and calls it like a conservative does, then you know the Dems. are in trouble.
This was no gaffe. This was no Sigmund gets a Spinal Tap.
This was calculated!
This cements Jo Kes control of the commie zombie truthers. The most dangerous of the lefty useless idiots.
The 64 zillion trigantic pu question is ~ can the truthers take out the triangulators? This is an 08 strategy tactic. Mr and Mr Kerry Heinzs attempt to wrest control of the party to run again!
"They want to do to Iraq just what they did to our allies in Vietnam."
The Democrat Congress pulled funding for the South Vietnamese forces in 1972, partially as a result of John F'ing Kerry's testimony before Congress. During his testimony, Kerry noted that the NVN and VC wouldn't take retribution.
He was almost right, hah! Out of a total population (North + South) of about 55 million the estimates of executions range from two to four million people.
If one extrapolates that to Iraq, a country of about 25 - 27 million, we could expect one to two million people to be executed after the Democrats pull funding.
Satan and Stalin gotta love those Democrats!!!
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