Kerry said his "bad joke" eight days before the election. When I was in Iraq, it usually took 10 days for a letter to go from Iraq to the U.S. He probably knew that he said it after absentee ballots needed to be mailed. He knew that, if a servicemember, in Iraq, wanted to vote against a Democrat, because of what he said, it was too late.
Well, now the Democrats have their scapegoat for after they lose in four days. Same as the last time, curiously enough. They'll be able to blame everything on John Kerry, and not have to get all squishy and introspective about why the voters just don't like them very much.