Kerry Tells Imus He’s ‘Sorry’ for ‘Botched Joke’

“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, and if you don’t you get stuck in Iraq.”
As opposed to this…
Kerry said his comment couldn’t have been directed at members of the military because you have to be smart to get into the military. “You can’t get into the military today if you do badly in school,” said Kerry.
Hmmm…it’s the return of the flip-flopper

It seemed pretty clear to me when I read what Kerry had said that he was talking directly about Bush and not our soldiers. Of course, the spinmeisters do their thing and turn a bad joke into something it’s not. Which led me to think, why would Kerry tell college kids to study hard or they’ll end up in a mess in Iraq? They’re in college, they aren’t going to Iraq. Of course he was talking about Bush. Grow up people.

My husband served in the Air Force for twenty years, taking his turn with other military members in the middle east. He also has a college degree, as does many of those with whom he has served. I feel that Kerry’s comments directly reflect his true feelings about the men and women that have been, and those currently serving in the Military. Maybe thats why he treated his Military accomadations and medals with such disreguard. As far as him apoligizing for the commments he made. I think anything he says now, will only show that he is sorry for getting caught, not for the comments themselves. In my opinion he doesn’t deserve the respect given to those who are elected as Senators. Words can’t possibly express my feelings of outrage for his comments, as well as the excuses he is making to try to cover up for his lack of good judgement. He should be ashamed of himself!! When I vote I vote for the person, not the party. This is one individual that will not get a vote that I cast.

“Botched joke?” What a joke! This not only shows his lack of intelligence, but also makes the citizens who believe him appear to be uneducated. He is a public speaker, who was giving a speech. Most people plan ahead of time when they are going to give a speech in front of a group of people. Public speakers know to think before they speak.He knew what he was saying, and when the public did not like it, he made excuses.He owes the troups an apology.

It’s time to stop being so sensitive to Kerry’s comments yesterday and being so afraid….he is right on target about the consciousness of Iraq and the truth of Iraq. Our world hurts from the decisions made by our president…

As to the remarks Senator Kerry made about our soldiers in Irag it is about what you would expect from a person who left Vietnam after three purple hearts (two of them self induced) coming back to this country and protesting about the war and running this country down.
I spent three years in Vietnam and I am proud of every minute I spent there. I certainly do not have any time for a coward (Kerry) and especially when he is one of the law makers of this great country. He should apologize to the military and then he should resign his office.
He is a disgrace to this country.

Just give President a minute or two and he will put his foot in his mouth again too. He is taking a cheap shot at Kerry, who made a stupid mistake. Why don’t they think before they speak? Does their mouth work faster than their brain.
I personally do not remember a worse President than George W. Bush, he is an arrogant person who listens to no one. He wanted to show his Dad he could get Saddam, at what price to our military? Those that gave the ultimate and to those who gave their limbs and horrible wounds suffered.
Yesterday the Iraq President insulted the US Military, I think we should leave them on their own and let them destroy each other, they are great at that. Bring our men and women home, enough is enough.
By the way, I will be 70 next month and I have seen several Presidents, so I have never felt this down about our government and the Presidential staff of Yes Women and Men, including Condi and Rumsfeld. I liked Condi, but no more, she just mimics what she is told by President Bush and Rumsfeld, another arrogant man.

I am a loyal Democrat, and John Kerry should apologize for the impact on our troops his botched joke has had. His words have been taken very literally by many of them, and he has to make amends. Only then will this storm go away.

The “joke” was an obvious failure, that much we get. Kerry’s famous tongue-tripping only got worse in the aftermath. But the better point of it all is, young people used to have a relatively safe bet of acquiring a good education and some other very valuable skills and experience by joining the military, without the likelihood of combat. Under the G. W. Bush administration, they were not only thrown to the wolves, they were practically spice-rubbed first, and they honestly, absolutely do get stuck there with mandatory repeat rotations, which has wreaked untold havoc in their civilian lives. We have not yet begun to feel the damage from this errant conflict. Only the hubris of a man like Bush could let this happen, and that was the essence of the (very poorly delivered, fatally truncated) Kerry joke.

Read the pre-released text of Kerry’s speech and you’ll see that he simply mis-spoke that text. Why isn’t the mainstream media including this in their coverage? An honest mistake – but Kerry isn’t spinning it well. Did he learn nothing from his botched 2004 campaign?

I can’t even begin to grasp the profound stupidity of this so-called “controversy”.
Kerry was a priviledged Yale-educated volunteer for the Navy during the Vietnam war. How could he possibly believe that American soldiers represent only the most uneducated if he himself is a living contradiction to that statement?
The obvious fact is that it was an unartfully worded statement at a rally. What is deserving of an apology is this: every time a criticism is levied at this administration (nearly all of whom never saw combat) they hide behind the troops.
We care immensely about our soldiers, and we cannot abide seeing them misused by reckless civilian leadership.

It is so sad we have come to this point in our national discourse. We see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear, and our anger and fear get the best of us. God help our country if we cannot understand what is really going on. We need to be gracious and intellient about this, as our problems are real, and the issues too important to dismiss on a bad joke from, and not to forget, a veteran and silver star winner. Don’t we owe Mr. Kerry alittle respect and understanding, and trust? I guess not … I guess the truth is irrelevant. In that way, we are all really stupid …

John Kerry should retire from public life. How he can still be making stupid mistakes like this one after a presidential bid and a lifetime in politics!!!!? Get out of the way and give a democrat with more than half a brain a shot at the Mass. sentate seat. And don’t even THINK about running for president again!

Mr. Kerry should learn how to keep his mouth shut… My brother served time in Iraq and he was a college graduate. Perhaps maybe he should go over there and spend some time hisself.. People like him are who give our country a bad name. It’s apparent that he doesn’t know what he is talking about.. God Bless the troops who are serving our country and my prayers are with you!

First I want to say to “Miller”, you are right on! Except that I never did like Condi, I think you have very good insight regarding this issue.
I would like to add this… It is obvious that Kerry was talking about Bush as are all Democrats. To anyone that understands the least bit about human behavior can tell there is no reason for Kerry to make a derogatory remark about those serving in Iraq. He tried to warn students not to drop out, good advice, and at the same time be funny and put down Bush. It obviously didn’t come out exactly right. Do any of you word everything you say exactly right every time? If a college student drops out of school, guess what? He or she now has FEWER OPTIONS and therefore MIGHT have to give increased consideration to joining the service and therefore wind up in Iraq. Is that derogatory to say? No way. I support every member of our armed services like every one of you reading this. But I don’t want to be in Iraq.
Polls say the majority of people in our armed services don’t want to be in Iraq. Most families don’t want their loved ones to be there. Many currently serving in Iraq want out. Is that because they are “bad” americans? No, it is because Americans in Iraq are making things worse. The majority of Iraqis (common citizens) support the use of violence to get us out of their country. Are the majority of Iraquis all so dumb they can’t see we are helping them? Do all of you blind Bush followers sitting safely at home believe you know better what the Iraqis need than the Iraqis themselves? You obviously do so do you also beleive we should force ourselves on them?
George Bush knowingly fabricated evidence to gain support for this war. He is NOT MAN ENOUGH to say he is wrong about anything. A real man (or woman) of character with respectable leadership qualities IS NOT AFRAID to admit a mistake. George W Bush is the worst president this country has ever seen.
For those of you jumping on Kerry over this, you didn’t like Kerry anyway and this is an excuse for you to attack. Like Bush, you don’t want to talk about the real issues because Bush has done such a BAD job.
Someone complained that Kerry didn’t deserve 2 of the 3 purple hearts Kerry was given. Talk about “not supporting our troops”, like it or not, when you attack Kerry’s record, you attack the records of all service personnel. I’m sorry that you think a man that put his life on the line in battle but received only one “valid” purple heart deserves no respect.

All “what can we read into this” symantics aside, the reason John Kerry’s statement has so unnerved the Republican right is that it contains an extremely uncomfortable kernel of truth. The issue with Iraq is not the men and women who serve or have served there. Almost universally, they have done an extraordinary job under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. The issue is with the individual who put them there in the first place. Put plainly, Kerrey’s concern is with our President’s obvious lack of understanding about how we came to be in Iraq, why we are there still, and the impact this misadventure is having, not only in Iraq, but the world over. And the extremely uncomfortable kernel of truth is that, as has been demonstrated in poll after poll after poll, it’s a concern a signficant majority of Americans obviously share.

I feel that an apology is needed and the entire bit disgusts me. I think the bigger picture that we are all missing is how both parties spend thier time putting one another down in their speeches and media campaigns rather than focusing on making this great country an even greater country. I am sick and tired of hearing speeches and seeing commercials that concentrate on what others do wrong rather than focusing on uniting both parties and reaching postitive and effective solutions.

Consider the scene of John Kerry speaking to a group of college kids with one objective -disenfranchize them. How or why is it appropriate for anyone to stand before an audience of young people and slander the President of the United States of America? His opening act is a string of predictable jokes about George W. Bush?
John Kerry showed his true colors in the 2004 campaign and that is why he is NOT the current president.
Before the gaff of the “joke”, he was acting inappropriately and no doubt for his own financial gain. The administration at the school in Pasadena should be getting as much heat over this as Kerry has gotten.
How was an appearance by Kerry supposed to inspire greatness in his audience?
He did not even take the boxing gloves off long enough to qive an unqualified apology as he falls back into the Dem ranks today! This is why the Democratic Party lacks for leadership -this was the best candidate they could find in 2004!

What a shock!! Another disgraceful comment from ‘John Fonda’.

What Kerry meant to say is NOT what he actually said. I am quite sure we have all misspoken at one point or another in our lives. He needs to own up to what he DID say. Just apologize already. Say he’s sorry for those who were offended by his words. Why is that so hard?

Hmm… let’s weigh this situation on a scale… on one side, Kerry may need to apologize for a slur against the intelligence of soldiers (though he makes a reasonable argument that it wasn’t a slur but a botched joke)… and on the other side… McCain may need to apologize for his pro-torture, and Habaes Corpus votes in Congress… Gee… that’s a really tough call…

Yes I believe that what John Kerry said was wrong, but it is obvious that he made an honest mistake & his comment was meant for Mr. Bush. Do you really think he would consciously say this knowing what impact it would make on his career and the direction of his political party?
Let’s look at the bigger picture here!
This comment probably would not have been made if we weren’t in Iraq to begin with.
We wouldn’t be in Iraq if the White House Administration had not misled our people into believing their was a connection with Saddam and Osama. Then we were led to believe that the “real” reason we were Iraq was the possession of weapons of mass destruction. Afterwards we were told that the “real” reason for being in Iraq was because Saddam committed atrocities on his own people & that the U.S. needed to free them and create democracy in the region. I am one who believes in Democracy, if we impose it on ourselves as we did over 200 years ago. It obviously works if we are the ones in control of that process. What arrogance we show as a country trying to impose our views & values on another country. They have to want it themselves & when we leave their country their may be some sort of chaotic control… but, the bottom line is that their will always be some sort of resentment towards our country for imposing this IDEA on them and they had no control of imposing it on themselves. Now the administration & the Republican Party want to lead us down another path and use John Kerry’s blunder to benefit them to keep their jobs, when deep down they know that we are not going in the right direction & we as Americans see this and have the power to change the direction of our country. It is bad enough that we were fooled once by Mr. Bush and his administration, but shame on us if we allow ourselves as a country to be fooled again.

Corbett got it exactly right. When I first read the quote yesterday I thought it was funny — only not, because of course he was talking about BushCheneyInc. And then following that was McCain’s comment that he thought Kerry was disrespecting the troops on the ground. I definitely did not think that — of COURSE he was talking about the fools and charlatans in the Bush administration, especially George himself. Anyone who really thinks Kerry was talking about the troops hasn’t been paying attention to the many ways in which both the Afghanistan (where’s Osama?) and Iraq wars have been utterly botched. Of course it makes sense since both Bush and Cheney are both draft-dodgers!!

Mr. Kerry should stop “playing politics” which he obviously was doing and doing very poorly. My poor dumb nephew with an engineering degree from West Point is serving in Iraq and I’m sure he is impressed with Kerry joking about how dumb he is. Being in Viet Nam 40 years ago does not give Kerry any more credibility or make him more or less a patriot than any other american, including our president. Kerry is just plain a poor loser and he is showing again why I would never vote for him.

Tom Vaitys- Kerry ego problems are restraining his ability to apologize for an insult whther intended or unintended. If the Democrats want the momentum not to U turn they will have Kerry do two things.
1. Apologize fully and unconditionally to all those who serve and have served our military
2. Sit down and shut up
Mr. Kerry this isn’t 2004 and after this fiasco you’ll be watching 2008 on CNN- so get an easy chair

This is the base belief of the enlightened, educated left. Only dumb right wing troglodytes would enlist to serve the military. As the Dixie Chicks and Turner said “Patriotism is stupid”. In words from Kerry to you Mothers and Fathers who have lost sons serving our country. He died protecting my rights to say these things and I believe you are a sucker. The Dems seem to have a platform that is anti American. When we lose as a country. The Dems feel validated that their 1960 lifestyle and opinions were actally correct and not childish stupidity and ungratefulness. Why do the Dems war against us? Thank god house. We came so close to a disaster.

it is ‘encourage’ not ‘incourage’
yes bush went to college and got ‘gentleman’s c’s’
his national guard duty hardly equals duty in iraq
the moment this war started i knew it was going to be another vietnam and finally
ivy leaque educated bush knows it too
but at such an incalcuable cost
and yes i went to college got A’s and a few B’s and since i am a girl it had nothing to do with avoiding military service
bush has caused a great amount of harm to our country
can anyone think of anything significantly good he has accomplished
i want to be open minded
i doubt he would have been admitted to yale if his name was not george bush
he lacks merit
imho of course

Let’s stay clear on issue…
Kerry took such a pounding on the last election from the political machine and Rove’s positioning of him that his camp never got any traction; so that, his issues were not heard.
The war in Iraq was also a positioning, Branded campaign. Unfortunately, witout trueful substance.
The servicemen who defend the country are being used by both sides now to ensite each political base.
The $6-9 billion dollars monthly that we spend, the lives lost, the thousands injured, are, I fear, waisted. Used by both. Each side jockies for position. While the wasted effort continues. For what? Money? Oil? Where’s the benefit?
I can see no benefit for the war. For Mr. Kerry’s comments. Or for President Bush’s continuation of a war with no end, or plan, or benefit for the United States. I work for a company that sells nearly $2 billion of products a year. In one month we spend 3 times what my company makes and for what benefit? Who is better off? America? The UK? Irac? Are we stronger? Better? Richer? Safer?
It’s time to start talking and working with others to make this better. Not more polarized. Both of these guys are incredibly wealthy. Incredibly smart. After security, the role of government is to create union between people. I am sadened by this kind of discourse. It cheapens the political process from both parties. It’s historical market research that rules the day. Not clever solutions for the betterment of mankind.

John Kerry has always disparaged the troops. Just a few months ago on Face the Nation he said our troops were “terrorizing women and children” in Iraq. HE is the Democratic party…a bunch of spineless wannabe’s who are soft on defense. And please spare me your insults, my nephew was killed in Iraq, so I of all people, know who will be tough on terrorists. And it dam sure won’t be a Democrat. If Clinton had done something about all the terrorist attacks we had in the past, my nephew would still be alive.

Funny, I’m in the military now and I understood what Kerry was referring too (a joke about draft dodger Bush–not us in the military). All the other guys who actually saw the footage here got the joke too. Anyone who thinks a Vietnam vet like Kerry wouldn’t support us is a moron.

Let’s face it, if Kerry weren’t such a wooden oaf he would have won in 2004. He may be an idiot, but I don’t believe that he meant to disparage our troops in Vietnam….I mean Iraq. I still can’t believe that he was the best that the Dems could come up with. Here’s to hoping for a better slate in 2008.