Well, Sen. John Kerry certainly did his best to offer an October surprise
for Republicans at the last minute.
On Monday, Kerry was in California, stumping for Democratic gubernatorial
candidate Phil Angelides. At an event at Pasadena City College intended to
highlight Democratic education policies, Kerry told students, "You know,
education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your
homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well." But, he
added, "If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
The Internet lit up like a pinball machine. Sen. John McCain called on Kerry
to apologize. Shortly thereafter the grand whirligig of the GOP message
machine started churning, with denunciatory press releases from the usual
suspects. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow asked the press to ask
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jim Webb of Virginia - a veteran and the
father of a soldier in Iraq - if he agreed with Kerry's comments.
In response, Kerry issued a splenetic statement: "I'm not going to be
lectured by a stuffed-suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium.
... It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the
uniform of our country, lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about
those who have. ... Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men
because they're afraid to debate real men."
This raises an interesting question: Can a typed diatribe still be
spittle-flecked?
Later, Kerry did find a podium in Seattle and more or less read the same
statement for the cameras.
Presumably, Kerry doesn't believe that McCain is either a stuffed-suit
Republican hack or a cowardly service-slacking liar. Nor should it matter.
Either what Kerry said was wrong or it wasn't. Neither his service nor his
critics' lack thereof changes the meaning of what Kerry said.
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