John Kerry

[Amskeptic]

It is such a sad thing, such a sad silly little display, such an obscene pathetic small small-minded petty display of all that is going wrong in America. . . to have to watch this tempest in a teapot.

The pain of having to endure the hot humid interpretations of What John Kerry Really Meant, the strident demands that he apologize to the troops, when it is clear that he was slamming the President for being stupid, no kidding, look at George pounce, with that irritating goose head bob, "I'm here to tell Senator Kerry that our troops are not stupid." Jeeezus.

This cannot be American Democracy in action. We have serious issues to sort out. This election is not a referendum on John Kerry. The talking heads gravely debate whether or not John Kerry "hurt" the Democrats. This election cannot be about such inane misinterpretations, it has to be about our future direction.

John, do not be cowed by these hyenas. You stumbled with your words but we get it. This is not the time to mock the President. Just say what you mean. The morass in Iraq is because of your lack of conviction, too.
Colin

[Velokid1]

I totally agree. I cringed when I saw the story breaking.

Why is it that conservatives are so brilliantly skilled at getting their minions to pounce on such meaningless bullshit?

With Bush, we have enough pounceable material to last several centuries worth of reasonable citizens, and yet he still hasn't gotten what he deserves.

But a botched joke or a blowjob can literally be responsible for keeping in power those who are slaughtering hundreds of thousands, stripping American's of their civil liberties and... well, we've all heard it a thousand times.

Time to DO. Vote. On a ballot and with your dollars. (The dollar's the more powerful vote, btw.)

[steve74baywin]

Why is it that conservatives are so brilliantly skilled at getting their minions to pounce on such meaningless bullshit?

In some cases I think it is that "Football team" problem again. They have been unknowingly conditioned to react in the same manner as they do for Football. They cheer for their team immediately and wrong or right is of no significance. Right and wrong, people vs gov should be what matters and how it is, but they instead have been conditioned to support their team,,,the team they choose years ago, thru thick and thin they will support them. I have been contemplating running an ad here offering to deprogram people who have their heads so screwed up by the mind conditioning the administration has been doing. I could hypnotize people and clear their head so they can once again objectively think... They will no longer have the programing that causes them to shout out Remember 911 when one talks about the war in Iraq, or if you disapprove of the war you are not American...

[daves_ale]

If I see one more fucking politican waving the Bloody Flag, or a cying eagle, or a sad child holding her dad(in uniform complete with gun).....

It'd be to soon.

[Westy78]

Why is it that conservatives are so brilliantly skilled at getting their minions to pounce on such meaningless bullshit?

Because so many of those minions lack the ability to think for themselves and only parrot the bullet points they hear on a daily basis. Remember, if we say it enough times they will believe. Oh yes, they will believe.

[Velokid1]

Why is it that conservatives are so brilliantly skilled at getting their minions to pounce on such meaningless bullshit?

Because so many of those minions lack the ability to think for themselves and only parrot the bullet points they hear on a daily basis. Remember, if we say it enough times they will believe. Oh yes, they will believe.

Then let me rephrase and approach the question from the opposite angle:

Why are so many "liberals" unable to rally around even the most reasonable, obvious and important things?

If conservatives rally out of brainlessness, do liberals refuse to rally out of brainfulness?

[vdubyah73]

Kerry has a long history of being misunderstood when he says anything about the military going back to the vietnam war. He's a pompous ass, rich womans boy toy.

Bill

[DjEep]

He's a pompous ass, rich womans boy toy.

I wish I was a rich woman's boy toy, as I already have the pompous ass part down...

[Amskeptic]

His comment was not clean and passionate. He would have pulled it off. No, he was snarky and so he garbled the inflections, lost his place, omitted the key word "us," and then, and then, and then, he apologized which, I am sorry, was dead wrong. It allows the spinners to point at his "insulting the troops." He has harmed himeself and I say good, smart as he is, he is not ready for prime time.
Colin
(doesn't change a thing about the issues we must vote upon)

[Elwood]

Colin- you are so right about at these are not the issues we are voting on.

I hope the IAC folks read deeper in the issues and make their votes on what keep our democracy true and right.

[LiveonJG]

Here's Keith Olbermann's take on this. This guy is dead on.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/11/0 ... -in-power/
-John

[Amskeptic]

That was good. I am so damn sick of these people who have taken this "insult to the troops" by Kerry to heart in the same news cycle that had Cheney blaming the generals for the failures in Iraq, and Bush declaring fealty to Rumsfeld who insulted the troops by putting them in harm's way with his conceit of a "lean" military with inadequate armor AND, this just in, they are denying PTSD claims for troops who broke down while still under orders.
Colin

[DjEep]

I don't believe he "botched the joke." I think he meant what he said and then figured out how to cover his ass when it backfired. And while I agree with what Kerry really said, I'm gonna have to also agree with Bill on this one. I think it showed that Kerry is as much an ass as any politician, particularly Dems. They are always working clean-up, they can't stand by anything they say if there is a backlash of any sort.

Once again, the Repubs as a whole may be evil, but that doesn't make the Dems as a whole less stupid.

[RussellK]

Maybe Kerry was subconsciously referring to the "Poor Man's Army" and he was more right than wrong in what he said. There are a hell of a lot of people that can not afford college that join up to get their education paid and have to duck bullets as a way of paying off the "loan" Kerry's problem is he is too much of a blue blood. When he's pissed he sounds like he's threatening to hold his breath until his face turns blue. In the last election when his patriotism was questioned because he threw medals over the fence he tried to take the high road when he should have just crossed the stage and punched George's lights out. He would have felt better and he would have gotten the bubba vote

[Adventurewagen]

I don't believe he "botched the joke." I think he meant what he said and then figured out how to cover his ass when it backfired. And while I agree with what Kerry really said, I'm gonna have to also agree with Bill on this one. I think it showed that Kerry is as much an ass as any politician, particularly Dems. They are always working clean-up, they can't stand by anything they say if there is a backlash of any sort.

I was hoping I wasn't the only one thinking this. But this "botched joke" thing is bull shit. Even if he "nailed" the joke with the correct inflections, I don't see how it would have been just toward Bush without an unfortunate jab at our soldiers.

It was very poor taste and has been taken out of context like every stupid thing a politician says. Unfortunately I truly beleive this freudian slip gave a bit too much insight into Kerry's personal belief that our troops are made up of uneducated slackers who are there only because they couldn't work hard enough at a preppy school like him and make real money.

Having said that, I don't necessarily support Bush and I don't necessarily hate Kerry. I support my friends, many of which happen to be soldiers. I just think its probably what he believes on the inside and is really sad if thats truly the case, we will never know.