Pretty much every “hard-charging” Dem is being forced to address this issue - especially the ones in tough races.
“Whatever the intent, Senator Kerry was wrong to say what he said,” said Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr., running for Senate in Tennessee.
“Sen. Kerry’s remarks were poorly worded and just plain stupid,” said Montana Senate President Jon Tester, a Democrat trying to unseat GOP Sen. Conrad Burns. “He owes our troops and their families an apology.”
“I’m sorry he did what he did. But I think the issue … we want to make sure it doesn’t confuse the subject of the war in Iraq,” Democratic Rep. Ben Cardin, running for Senate in Maryland, said on CNN.
Tim Walz is no longer interested in Mr. Kerry HELP.
And Casey thinks he’ll go it ALONE, as well.
The spin?
Kerry spokesman David Wade confirmed he no longer would appear at a Philadelphia rally on Wednesday for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Casey.
“We made a decision not to allow the Republican hate machine to use Democratic candidates as proxies in their distorted spin war,” Wade said.
Great. The spin is that “we decided not to let them spin.”
Anatomy of a botch:
What Kerry said Monday at a campaign rally was this: “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.”
A Kerry spokeswoman, Amy Brundage, said later that the senator’s prepared text had called for him to say: “Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush.”
Here are the questions I have with this whole “botched joke” defense, though.
First, why is Kerry straying so far from his prepared text? One thing that all Americans can say they learned in 2004 (mostly to our great sorrow) is that there is not a spontanious bone in Kerry’s body. When he speaks “off-the-cuff,” everyone cringes. On both sides of the political aisle.
His paraphrasing is half as effective as his prepared material. The “positive vs. negative” difference alone is a major step down. And what about that the punch-line? Very clear, and effective - as written, that is. As delivered? Soggy, at best. (Oh, and one other thing. Let’s make up our minds. Did Bush fail in Iraq because he’s a moron? Or because he’s a brilliant and deceitful manipulator of facts? We can’t have it both ways. Kerry’s made both claims. Let’s find one we like and stick with it, OK?)
But the second (and more serious) question I have is: how could this possibly be a botched joke? Yeah, I’m calling into question the entire defense. Someone’s lying, I think.
If the “prepared” joke was actually the one Kerry was supposed to deliver, how could he botch it the way he did? He got all mealy-mouthed, which I can understand. He’s done it before. But the part of the “joke” that really needed to be botched was that last line. The “just ask Bush” part. Even if he had already badly mangled his joke, it would still have worked perfectly if he had just said “ask Bush.” That’s all he needed to do.
I’ve seen the video. There was plenty of time for him to say it. He didn’t. It wasn’t as though he was forced to pause because of the overwhelming applause or cheering. There was ample opportunity to finish the joke so that everyone could easily understand that he was speaking about Bush. But he didn’t.
The only way that makes sense is if he actually meant to say what he said. A vital part of the Democratic effort to make “us” lose our nerve is to convince everyone in America than they will end up in Iraq. That’s why those absurd draft rumors have been floating around for ever. And that’s why Kerry tells college students that a GOP majority will ensure each of the listening students will end up in Iraq.
That was no botched joke. It was intentional.
I’m with Dana Parino on this one:
“If it was a botched joke, someone show me the punch line. I don’t see how it was funny,” Perino said. “I don’t know how … anybody could have taken them any other way.”
No one can. But perhaps that’s because they weren’t intended any other way.
