Wonder if there is a question about the sound bite.
That article is still up and says he got "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.
He is probably saying he said you will end up in a wreck