Amen

I think the problem is that we do know what he meant, and it seems insulting to those of us who have family and friends in the military. The military is not a place for drop outs and morons. For example, my younger brother graduated from the Naval Academy with a degree in aeronautical engineering, and he served in Iraq. Not only can he tie his own shoes without referring to a diagram, he's actually a freakin' rocket scientist.

People who don't know anyone in the military, or who disdain the military in general, seem to think it's filled with meatheads and bullet sponges. They seem to think it's like the locker room of a high school football team. But people who know people in the military know that it's filled with intellectual and intellectually curious people. My father got his master's while in the Air Force. My roommate from law school is now in the military JAG corps.

People who know people in the military also know that you have to meet certain academic requirements before you can gain admittance. Say what you want, but that's not true at Blockbuster or on the line at Chevy. (And you'll notice that he didn't refer to the employees of Blockbuster or Chevy or 7-11 or McDonald's.)

Which brings me to the worst part about Kerry's statement. He suggests that "getting stuck in Iraq" is the worst possible punishment for poor behavior. True, I'd have preferred for my younger brother to avoid that duty. But those that go to Iraq consider it an honor and a service. And it demeans that service when politicians to suggest that it's just the crap duty for the dregs of our society.

I doubt Kerry meant to demean anyone. But he did, and you shouldn't get a pass without apologizing when you make insensitive remarks.

Just my two cents.

-- Comish

But that's not what Kerry meant. He was mocking Bush. His prepared remarks are clear -- don't study, don't learn and when you're president you'll screw it all up.

That may have been what he meant (and that's what I understood when I first heard the comment), but that's not how people took it. He should know as a seasoned politician the importance of sound bites in today's media coverage and especially he should have watched himself this close to the election.

I'm certainly a bigger Kerry fan than Bush, but he can't be surprised that his words were taken as an insult to military, and an apology, which he delivered, was certainly appropriate. What was said certainly sounded like an insult to people in the military, not Bush. As a liberal, even I had to kind of sit back and think, if he screwed up a joke, he freaking butchered it.

It still amazes me that politicians don't think more before they say things. On the one hand, I wish they would speak their mind more often, but they always end up saying things that they have to retract. I wish they would pay more careful attention to what they are saying, say what they mean, then if people are offended, don't appologize.

Definitely. It was a botched joke that wasn't even well-written in the first place. It's still frustrating that (a) Kerry was the best the Democrats could come up with in '04, and (b) he couldn't get his act together enough to beat a sociopath like Bush. But I know Kerry didn't mean anything about the troops; he was trying to squeeze off another round in Bush's direction, and it misfired. The voracity with which Republicans have jumped on Kerry for the gaff is especially annoying, since with midterms a few days away and no end in sight to the war, I keep hoping the candidates will talk about substantive issues. But I'm kind of dumb that way.

The older I get, the more obvious it becomes that people don't get sarcasm or irony....