<p>The average “lump” will know when he/she hears what Kerry said that he wasn’t talking about Bush. The smart ones can spin it any way they want to, but the “lumps” will know. Based on his comments my guess is that Kerry is a regular poster here for those threads that veer into discussions about our military - not very smart, can’t get a job anywhere else, etc. Don’t study hard, get stuck in Iraq. It’s amazing how hard the “smart” ones will go to defend this embarrassment for a U.S. Senator.</p>
<p>On another matter the NYT this year has not endorsed one Republican candidate for either the House or Senate for the first time since Nixon was President. Draw your own conclusions about the “paper of record” and media bias. Probably just being controlled by their corporate puppetmasters.</p>
Of course, we’re not all equally endowed intellectually. But you seem to imply that conservatives are somewhat less endowed with analytical ability than liberals – thus, the negative comment about middle Americans listening to Rush Limbaugh and being unable to parse his sentences. By the way, what do you mean by middle Americans? And do you have any conservative friends?</p>
<p>Nope, hereshoping, you’re wrong. The quote appeared in the middle of a string of one-liners, all of the others unambiguously directed at Bush. (“George Bush used to live in the State of Texas, but now he’s moved to the State of Denial. . . .”) Standing alone, the sentence may be ambiguous (but I read it as referring to Bush before I read any of the stories). In context, it could only refer to Bush. </p>
<p>Pure out-of-context hijacking. Despicable when either side does it.</p>
<p>Come on, be honest. Do you really believe John Kerry said, effectively, “If you are too dumb for school, you’ll wind up as a soldier in Iraq”? In what universe would that happen? In what universe would that make sense? You can hate on Kerry all you want for perfectly legitimate reasons, but this one is not even in the ballpark of reality.</p>
<p>I’ll admit that I’ve laughed at Bush malapropisms. But I’ve never pretended that he actually meant to say something totally beyond the pale.</p>
<p>Browninfall, if that “average lump” gets most of their news from Fox News, it’s a documented fact that they will believe pro-Republican propaganda long after it’s been publicly disproved, and even after it’s admitted to be false by the President. So you may be right. Where do you stand on the “People who listen to Rush know he’s not a newsman” discussion?</p>
<p>From MSN:
"The Massachusetts senator, who is considering another presidential run in 2008, had opened his speech at Pasadena City College with several one-liners, joking at one point that Bush had lived in Texas but now lives in a state of denial.</p>
<p>Then he said: 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 dont, you get stuck in Iraq. "</p>
<p>OK, taken in context–which appears to have been provided in very few of the articles on this–he was throwing out one-liners about Bush at the time he made the comment about education. That would, to me, imply that he was still talking about Bush.</p>
<p>Even had it been referring to the troops–which I do not believe it does–it does not imply that the troops are stupid or uneducated. Even if the statement “If A, then B” is true, that does NOT mean “If B, then A” is true. Simple logic, as my husband would say.</p>
<p>(Sorry to post the same quote as kluge; we posted at the same time.)</p>
Hard to get more prominent than this? You’re daft. Do you think the Foley situation (including much of its misreporting) got such limited play? The Rush Limbaugh comment? This experiment, of course, is ongoing; what sort of coverage will there be this evening and tomorrow morning? Will it be comparable to what the above two cases received?</p>
<p>I became aware of the Kerry statement at about 6:45 AM eastern, when my alarm turned on to Bill Bennett’s program. Nothing about it at all on the half-hourly newscasts. Nothing in the morning papers. Didn’t even hit Drudge until after 11AM, when someone sent him a soundfile. An AP story on McCain’s statement appeared shortly before noon. By that time, the only mention on ABC was in Jake Tapper’s blog. As the afternoon wore on, the references you refer to began to appear, and you seem to have come across them around 3PM. I don’t think for a second that, had the statement been made by a Republican fighting for his seat, there would have been anything else leading the headlines on the MSM all day long.</p>
<p>As to Kerry’s remark in or out of context, it’s not really the point. It’s entirely possible that it was a part of a string of lame Bush-bashing oneliners. It’s also entirely possible, given that his whole political career began and ended with nasty shots at the military, that he said what he really thought. The real point, however, is that the media wouldn’t be giving any Republican the benefit of the doubt that it might just be a gaffe. Remember Trent Lott?</p>
<p>This is great evidence, by the way, that people actually believe what Rush Limbaugh says, especially when Tony Snow *absolutely, positively<a href=“read%20the%20story”>/i</a> engineers it into a national news story.</p>
<p>No unbiased person, conservative or liberal, could believe Kerry meant to say what Limbaugh and Snow accused him of saying. The quote, in context, clearly doesn’t say that. The text of the speech as written is 100% clear. The quote, out of context, is ambiguous only if you believe that two possible meanings, one of which is crazy, are equally likely. Even if you think Kerry is crazy, you will find no evidence whatsoever that he’s crazy that way.</p>
<p>Except, people are clearly taking Limbaugh’s word for it. </p>
<p>Browninfall, driver . . . I’m waiting. 'Fess up. This isn’t a judgment call. This is pure, 100% illegitimate disinformation. It would be illegitimate if the Dems were doing it to Bush, and if you have any good faith you’ll admit that this isn’t something for Snow to be proud of. (Limbaugh – Lord knows where the bottom is for him. He is crazy that way.)</p>
<p>Go to the Boston Globe website and click on the link to NECN (New England Cable News) where Kerry responds to the criticism. Judge for yourself. BTW, I posted earlier on another thread about a Iraq war veterans site that rated on Congressional leaders on support for the soldiers and the Vets. Kerry gets a B and McCain gets a D. </p>
<p>If you watch the video linked on CNN, he looks down as if he’s reading the statement, and then looks sheepish after he makes it (the crowd’s reaction was clearly not what he was expecting). This is the same way he looked when he brought up the fact that Dick Cheney’s daughter is a lesbian during one of his debates with Bush. That was also a horribly inappropriate comment, to say the least. In this case, he probably thought that a typical college crowd would cheer the comment and that it would not be picked up by anyone. The man is capable of being a jerk, as he has proved many times over.</p>
<p>Will coverage be comparable to Foley sending sex e-mails to male teenage pages? I think not. That was a story – sleazy, yes, but actual news, serious personal moral flaws, possible abuse of power, and clear hypocrisy by a person in a position of power. This is made up.</p>
<p>Will coverage be comparable to Limbaugh attacking Fox? I suspect it already is. It looks like the lead network news story today.</p>
<p>Bill Bennet had it this morning because it was on conservative blogs overnight. It wasn’t in today’s papers because they weren’t reporting Kerry’s speeches. It will be in tomorrow’s papers because it was the centerpiece of the White House Press Secretary’s news briefing today.</p>
“American troops had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam…”</p>
<p>“And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the-of-the historical customs, religious customs.”</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>I don’t know…I see a pattern of public and dishonest disrespect for the military (and diarrhea of the mouth) from the man who was the Democratic party’s last presidential candidate. Seems like real news to me.</p>
<p>But the real issue, I repeat, is that if a Republican had said this, the media would have given him the full Trent Lott treatment.</p>
<p>One of the biggest problems with the Kerry when he campaigned for President is that he failed to respond to the Swift Boat attacks. I suspect that he will not sit back this time and that the Democrats might just get more out of this than the Republicans…much like the attack on Michael J. Fox it just might backfire.</p>
<p>Claiming that Kerry was dishonoring the troops is dishonest, plain and simple. What he meant was clear enough; it takes an unprincipled, partisan slime machine to pretend that he was saying what Tony Snow and the other propagandists claim.</p>
<p>Dishonest. Simple as that. You may hope that Kerry “kicks his own ass” - fair enough, that’s just politics. But claiming that he meant what the slime machine claims he meant holds a mirror up to the character of those who repeat the lie.</p>