[bnelson44]

Here is some wisdom from Hot Air:

People send me these audio clips all the time and I’m never sure whether to run them or not. Without the audio of the whole speech, I can’t tell if the comments were later qualified, retracted, embellished, etc. So let’s just go ahead and assume that Kerry caught himself the moment this left his lips and immediately disavowed/clarified it. Okay? Full benefit of the doubt here.

That said, it’s awfully stupid. And, of course, completely politically tone-deaf, which makes it vintage JFK. As usual, you can kind of tell what he’s trying to say but it’s so artless you just end up shaking your head.
The guy who sent it to me says it comes from a speech Kerry gave today on behalf of Phil Angelides. John Ziegler of KFI 640AM in L.A. picked it up and the rest is history.


http://hotair.com/archives/2006/10/30/audio-john-kerry-on-americas-lazy-uneducated-military/

[bnelson44]

Zigler has the audio here with the following words:

John Kerry Says US Troops Are Dumb/Losers
Today at Pasadena City College at an event on behalf of Phil Angelides former Presidential candidate John Kerry actually told the students there that they better study or they may end up "stuck in Iraq." You can hear the audio at the link below.

http://www.kfi640.com/pages/JohnZiegler.html?feed=127993&article=457655

[maine-iac7]

Without the audio of the whole speech, I can’t tell if the comments were later qualified, retracted, embellished, etc. So let’s just go ahead and assume that Kerry caught himself the moment this left his lips and immediately disavowed/clarified it. Okay? Full benefit of the doubt here.

He said it - on tape - run it and let HIM explain himself....we, our troops and their families deserve no less! Good grief!

[newzjunkey]

Whittier Daily News article by staffer Cortney Felding mentions it almost in passed with their coverage of the event and never says Kerry clarified or retracted or anything of the kind. It did say he got "a mixture of laughter and gasps."

Here's an excerpt:

Kerry charmed the crowd with tales of surfing at Mission Beach and got laughs for a series of one liners, including telling the crowd he had just returned from Texas, "Where the president used to live - now he lives in a state of denial."

Kerry then told the students that if they were able to navigate the education system, they could get comfortable jobs - "If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," he said to a mixture of laughter and gasps.

With a week left until the Nov. 7 election, the stop was just part of a whirlwind stumping tour for Angelides, as he tries to close in on Schwarzenegger. Some polls put the governor 18 points ahead.