He’s baaack: Kerry opens mouth, inserts foot; opens mouth, inserts foot; opens…
I’ve been quite happy with John Kerry’s relative absense from the political scene ever since a certain November day two years ago.
On the other hand, that joy is tempered with just a teeny bit of sorrow at not having him to kick around any more. But like Nixon, he’s back, if only for a little while (please, please, let it be for only a little while).
By now you probably know what happened: first Kerry dissed members of the military, saying they’d ended up in Iraq because they hadn’t done well in school. Then he refused to apologize and released an over-the-top attack on Republicans for playing politics with his flatfooted remarks. He said the whole thing was a misfired joke in which he’d meant to say that it was Bush who hadn’t done well in school and therefore had led us into a stupid venture such as Iraq.
Kerry’s the talk of the blogosphere, leading me to believe that he might be a poster boy for the contention that to narcissitic people, bad attention is better than no attention at all. The Democrats might well wish they’d never seen the man; it’s hard to believe he ever was nominated for President and actually almost won but for a few votes in Ohio.
What strikes me about Kerry’s remarks is what’s struck me so many times before: something about this man is very, very weird.
I didn’t open this post with a comparison to Richard Nixon for nothing. Nixon was another man in public life who always struck me as profoundly weird on a personal level. Most politicians have a sort of ease with people, and even charm–for example, both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush possess it, although in very different versions, as did JFK and FDR.
Kerry is (and Nixon was) profoundly ill at ease within himself. With forced and awkward affect, it’s as though he’s studied what real people look and sound like, and is desperately trying to imitate it but can never get it quite right.
Both Kerry and Nixon seem(and seemed) to have trouble telling jokes, for example. If this recent fracas was a joke that backfired, as Kerry has claimed, then it’s another example of his tin ear for humor. And even if he’d delivered the lines right, the joke just isn’t funny. Stranger still is his overwhelming self-puffery and self-righteousness, almost to the point of caricature.
It’s as though Kerry’s a very bad actor playing the part of–himself.
Here are some excerpts from his response. Let’s begin at the beginning, with a classic opening line that’s funnier than any of Kerry’s intentional jokes:
Let me make it crystal clear, as crystal clear as I know how.
Which is, of course: not very.
Kerry follows with:
My statement yesterday–and the White House knows this full well –was a botched joke about the president and the president’s people, not about the troops. The White House’s attempt to distort my true statement…
Now, how on earth could the White House have known full well that it was a botched joke? And how could Kerry know full well that the White House knew full well? It’s one thing for Kerry to claim ex-post-facto that it was a botched joke, and to let people decide for themselves. But to contend that it’s botched-jokeness was so exceedingly obvious that the White House knew it “full well?” Bizarre, absurd, and nonsensical.
But Kerry doesn’t even seem to understand this; all he knows is he must go on the attack. It’s a mark of his narcissism that he’s incapable of stepping outside himself, of hearing his own words as others hear them, of putting himself in their places and trying to imagine what meaning they’d glean from what he originally said.
And then there’s the odd phrase (Kerry specializes in odd phrases, and they’re often the most telling part of his utterances): The White House’s attempt to distort my true statement [emphasis mine]. Any other person would have said, “my statement.”
Which “true statement” is Kerry talking about? The joke about the President doing poorly in school and thus leading us into Iraq? That “true statement?” Or is Kerry referring to the other “true statement” (we’ll call it the true true statement) the one that seems to have been the original meaning of his remarks, that only stupid people who did poorly in school go into the military? Will the real “true statement” please stand up?
It goes on and on. The allegation that McCain, as well the White House, knew full well what Kerry actually meant by his little joke. The macho posturing. The swagger that he can’t quite pull off. The accusation that the Republicans are about politics, whereas he isn’t. The reference to how America knows his “true feelings” about veterans. This from the man who launched the controversial Winter Soldier investigation, and whom many veterans detest because they feel he told defamatory lies about their service in Vietnam, all for the sake of his own glory.
Kerry knows–he must know, unless he’s even more delusional than I think he is–that he’s vulnerable on the issue of his Vietnam service and his criticizing veterans. And I fear he doth protest too much.
Smart Democrats are distancing themselves from Kerry, saying “thanks but no thanks” to his backing on the campaign trail. Perhaps if enough do so, even a narcissist like Kerry will finally get the hint.
But I wouldn’t lay money on it. A while back, Roger Simon pointed out Kerry’s remarkable resemblance to a stock commedia dell ‘arte figure known as “il Capitano,” or the braggart soldier.
The braggart soldier doesn’t ever get it. Next thing we know, Kerry will be offering the classic excuse il Capitano offers for his lack of an undershirt:
I used to be an exceedingly fierce and violent man, and when I was made angry the hair which covers my body in goodly quantity stood on end and so riddled my shirt with holes that you would have taken it for a sieve.
Kerry’s a dope — but he was referring to Bush. Though there is also a tranche of honesty when we say he has some contempt for the military. A Freudian slip, yea.
– he pretty much speaks for the Left if you ask me and they have always had a deep and veiled contempt for our military forces. I for one haven’t bought into their bullshit of supporting the troops but opposing the war for one F’n minute.
Interesting article on consequences to the pro-democracy people of Iraq if the U.S. led Coalition withdraws.
Q: What happened to the soul of liberalism that conservatism (for the moment) now champions her core values? Stranger than fiction indeed.
Rushing for the Exit
It does seem very strange that the Democratic and Republican parties have essentially exchanged their foreign policy positions since the end of WWII.
Bush and Co. are most certainly playing politics with the controversey – observe the somewhat suspect comments by McCain about U.S soldiers coming from different socio-economic backgrounds and being there for patriotic reasons – the meat and potatoes of the GOP effort to sustain the carnage in Iraq.
I couldn’t think of anything better for Bush than to have Kerry drawn into a debate before the elections – even as pathetic as it is for thinking people. And really, there is nothing relevant about Kerry’s Vietnam service either – and compared to any current member of Congress(aside from McCain perhaps)his service during the war was exemplary – Swift boat hilarities notwithstanding…
As far as his comments go – as ‘weird’ as they may be there is most certainly an element of truth to them far exceeding any ramblings to the ‘patriotic’ crowd and their neoconservative cheerleaders.
“More than 44 percent of U.S. military recruits come from rural areas, Pentagon figures show. In contrast, 14 percent come from major cities. Youths living in the most sparsely populated Zip codes are 22 percent more likely to join the Army, with an opposite trend in cities. Regionally, most enlistees come from the South (40 percent) and West (24 percent).
Many of today’s recruits are financially strapped, with nearly half coming from lower-middle-class to poor households, according to new Pentagon data based on Zip codes and census estimates of mean household income. Nearly two-thirds of Army recruits in 2004 came from counties in which median household income is below the U.S. median.”(Washington Post)
So to say that we’re not talking GOP political posturing here is ridiculous…
Joke? What is this joke? Does anyone know how it is supposed to be told so that it is funny? It is too late for apologies. Sure, someone else could have told this “joke” and gotten away with saying he was trying to tell a joke. But, no, no, not this guy. Since the seventies he he has defamed soldiers. This won’t wash. What we need from him now is not an apology but a resignation from the Senate. He is a shame upon the people of the great state of Massachusetts.
As far as his comments go – as ‘weird’ as they may be there is most certainly an element of truth to them far exceeding any ramblings to the ‘patriotic’ crowd and their neoconservative cheerleaders.
Which illustrates perfectly the underlying truth that many of us see in this incident, which is why it has resonance. The general contempt of the Left for rural, working folk, and their sons and daughters who defend the country is the subtext. Because the Democrats can’t win elections without the votes of those rural folk they try to hide this inconvenient truth. The beauty of Kerry is that he has exposed it to public view, doing all of us a great service. Reporting for duty indeed.
Anonymous | 11.01.06 – 10:08 am |
That was all posturing…
As for Kerry’s statement that he is a Vietnam vet and would never insult the troops, what the hell did he do when he got back from Vietnam?
Butt he won 3 purple hearts . . .
Yo, Nonny Mouse:
I’m from a rural area in the Southwest (town of about 7,000, if you count dogs, pigs, and chickens).
My GPA in college was 3.88 (out of 4) and I was valedictorian of my high school.
Care to re-think your Kerry-like assumptions?
Regarding demographics and the military:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda06-09.cfm
Rural areas still have vestiges of an older America. Church going, patriotic, families, men working real, physical-world outside jobs. Fly into Boise, Idaho. It’s like 1961. Polite, clean cut kids with their moms and dads. Naturally to the left, Boise and it’s ilk are homopathic feminist hell holes.
Central North America is also called ‘heart land’. Urban elitists refer to it as ‘fly over land.’ Telling, no?
Just as an aside, what would urban liberals fight for? I can’t think of anything. They are kind of the eloi of our time and make a big show and virtue of physical cowardness. If something, a job or a war requires physical courage, I don’t picture what I think of as liberals doing it, and I live in Massachusetts.
Anyways, when Trent Lott made a lame statement at Strom Thurmans 100th birthday. Lott went on to take full responsibility and apologize for days. John Kerry was the first to demand Lott resign.
Kerry. Stupid, inarticulate and dripping with condescension and hypocrisy.
Anonymous, are you assuming the carnage would stop if the US pulled out today? Do you think the carnage would increase if the US pulled out now? Well?? “..sustain the carnage in Iraq” your words. The only “controversy” (your word) over Kerry’s insult to military personnel is in the minds of the Left who can only offer up Bush hatred and Iraq to the voting Public. It seems a certain Democratic contender in Iowa, Bruce Braley, has told Kerry to stay away. He said Kerry’s comments were inappropriate. You still want to call this a controversy or is Braley dumb and poor like US military personnel? Oh, by the way, Kerry is canceling out on Minnesota pep rallies for the faithful too. Wow! Talk about a controversy. These Dems must know something about Kerry that you don’t. Gee! I wonder if they are remembering the “swift boat hilarities” (your words again) and connecting them to the harm he has just done to the fraudlent meme of Dems loving the troops but hating the war? You have very faulty logic in other respects as well, namely poverty and college access. The military educational assistance packages beats the hell out of pell grants and student loans, hands down. Do some homework, no pun intended. Couldn’t quite say it, could you, that them poor folks forced to join the military, who are really just GOP victims, couldn’t do college work anyway?
My t
It’s about a lack of oppurtunties and who actually pays for the war and why, not some ‘liberal elitist’ contempt for the lower classes.
And what Kerry did when he returned from Vietnam was the bravest and most sincere thing he could have done for the troops.
Painting a group of people with a wide brush for propaganda purposes(even more so when it’s fanatistically complementary)eliminates informed discussion.
And thats clearly what we have here.
And stumbley – I’m certainly not lookikng down my nose at rural folk, nor am I drawing a link between intelligence and formal education.
So chill….
I don’t particularly like Kerry either – he’s quite the windbag in his old age – – but at least he’s talking about issues – or trying, anyway…
“And stumbley – I’m certainly not lookikng down my nose at rural folk, nor am I drawing a link between intelligence and formal education.”
Then why were you quoting the Post’s figures (a paper I once worked for, by the way), if not to infer a connection between the rural (i.e., uneducated) numbers in the military as opposed to the lower numbers of urban (i.e., educated) recruits?
Did this “Republican hack” misconstrue your intent?
And please…Kerry was not talking about the “issues”, Kerry was talking about his favorite subject: John Kerry.
Then why were you quoting the Post’s figures (a paper I once worked for, by the way), if not to infer a connection between the rural (i.e., uneducated) numbers in the military as opposed to the lower numbers of urban (i.e., educated) recruits?
Lack of education means lack of oppurtunity in the workforce – that what I mean. Rural areas tend to lack accessability(comparitively)to urban centres – as rural areas lack in diversity of employment options and social programs. Coupled with a higher religous influence(one could add) – and you have several obvious factors that contribute to higher enlistment figures. Nothing to do with intelligence – and no need to sing your rural accomplishments, at least in this particular context.
I’d be interested to know the statistics for the urban conscripts – they’re socio-economic standing – I would wager they come from relatively poor backgrounds too.
BTW – I had to laugh though.
“And please…Kerry was not talking about the “issues”, Kerry was talking about his favorite subject: John Kerry.”
LOL – wouldn’t argue there….
Then why were you quoting the Post’s figures (a paper I once worked for, by the way), if not to infer a connection between the rural (i.e., uneducated) numbers in the military as opposed to the lower numbers of urban (i.e., educated) recruits?
Lack of education means lack of oppurtunity in the workforce – that what I mean. Rural areas tend to lack accessability(comparitively)to urban centres – as rural areas lack in diversity of employment options and social programs. Coupled with a higher religous influence(one could add) – and you have several obvious factors that contribute to higher enlistment figures. Nothing to do with intelligence – and no need to sing your rural accomplishments, at least in this particular context.
I’d be interested to know the statistics for the urban conscripts – they’re socio-economic standing – I would wager they come from relatively poor backgrounds too.
BTW – I had to laugh though.
“And please…Kerry was not talking about the “issues”, Kerry was talking about his favorite subject: John Kerry.”
LOL – wouldn’t argue there….
Any man who has Purple Hearts and no scars on is body can say what he wants to about our military forces. Only a proven warrior-killer could get wounded and have no scars. Those who think he is demented are just jealous of his rich wife.
Come on, really. Kerry would have to be an idiot to say in public the military is full of stupid people. Maybe he did mean to say it and that makes him an idiot. Or, maybe he meant to say Bush is stupid but tripped up. I believe the second version, even if he really thinks in his heart the military is full of stupid people. No politician in his right mind would publicly insult the “sacred cow” military. But then, maybe Kerry is not in his right mind. In any case, Karl Rove must just be drooling at this one!
As for the average intelligence of folks in the military, let’s just say I’ve seen some dumb ones in my time, and I spent nearly twenty years around the military. But on average are there more or fewer dumb people in the military compared to other fields? Depends on the field. They certainly aren’t “the best and the brightest.” That’s just glorifying. But I can think of a number of fields where you can find even dumber people. Right now I’m thinking of politics!
What are you talking about Anon? You said, “I’d be interested to know the statistics for the urban conscripts”
Conscripts. n. One compulsorily enrolled for service, especially in the armed forces; a draftee.
Another Freudian slip from the Left — how revealing . . . were you a paper boy for The Post?
*******
And Irahayes (your words were taken in jest, but if they are literal)
You said, “Any man who has Purple Hearts and no scars on is body can say what he wants to about our military forces.” Well, minor scraps and scratches from so-called war wounds so he can run home to his mommy half way into his tour of duty . . . perhaps this is more of an accurate statement?
http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda06-09.cfm
A little different take from what the Wash. Post presents regarding our troops and their SES background – hmmmm – do we have a real controversy here or has the Left’s clever veil of contempt for the military slipped too far down this time exposing the pock marked cheeks, festering sores and other assorted ravages of an utterly failed and pus-filled ideology? God! What an analogy if I say so myself. Oh John! Enlighten the ignorant soldiers, tell ’em it was a joke, that even though you know they are baby killers and rapists, they are not dumb!
Okay, here is another one for you. I teach high school in a suburb that runs from below the poverty level to upper middle class. Of the 35 kids in my Senior English class last year, the three that wound up in the military (Marines) definitely would not have made it in college. They were all closer to the poverty line than the upper middle class. On the other hand, the two former students I know who have been to Iraq (Army) were college students who went with their National Guard units. One, Paul, joined because he needed the money to pay for college. He’s on his third tour. The other joined not because he needed the college money but because he thought a military experience would be “cool” and “adventurous.” He wound up in the Battle of Falluja. Of all of these guys, the best, smartest student was Paul. The one student from our school who has been killed in Iraq (I didn’t teach him) graduated validictorian and joined the National Guard in college because he was patriotic and Military service was a family tradition. Interesting, isn’t it. There no easy answer here.
Pure GOP BS, though this sort of thing is typical of either party, especially in desperate election situations.
Still, it is so tiresome these little games you guys play. In this case it’s especially galling given the Bush Administration’s obvious contempt for veteran’s issues.
BTW, by “my true statement” he obviously meant “my actual statement”, just like by “stuck in Iraq” he was obviously referring to the Bush adminstration, just like when Bush said “”You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror” he meant… um… um…
stumbley, are you in Iraq?
Ooh, yeah: crapping on the troops at war…. Crapping on ‘rural areas’….
There’s a way to win an election!
Why do the dems even want to run a country they dislike so much?
No. Are you?
http://leaningstraightup.com/2006/11/01/the-troops-respond-to-kerry-picture-it-doesnt-look-like-they-are-buying-his-excuse/
go there for a very telling picture of how some of the troops in Iraq regard Kerry’s crude, insulting remark.It is hilarious. Some GOP operative with some college under his/her belt must have put them up to it. He was obviously insulting US Troops unknown blogger – spin it all you want because few people are buying into the spin. Kerry is a jerk who slandered his fellow Viet Nam Veterans for political gain and this is no different. Put this ‘speech’ in context and quit insulting our intelligence with your bullshit spin.
>Why do the dems even want to run a country they dislike so much?
-Gray< Excellent question Gray!
Wait a sec. John Kerry “launched” the Winter Soldier Investgation? Funny, your trusty wikipedia doesn’t say anything about that.
Kerry has accidentally presented the left’s solution to the mystery of why the nearly the entire military votes Republican, even though the Democrats promise never to send them out to fight for anything, anywhere, ever again… because they’re all a bunch of retarded, inbred rural hicks who LIKE getting shot at, to further the ends of their evil Rethuglican masters.
There’s just no other explanation. At least, not any the Democrats can imagine, even in their most terrifying nightmares. Freedom and liberty are just innate magical powers created by pacifism and multiculturalism, after all. There is certainly no man-made system that produces them, and even thinking that there might be can cause the magic of pure belief to fail, which is why conservatives are not just stupid, but evil, murderous scum dragging the rest of the world into oppression with their double plus ungood thoughtcrimes.
Come on, really. Kerry would have to be an idiot to say in public the military is full of stupid people.
Thank you, kungfu, I was going to post the same comment.
Neo-neocon, in switching political camps you’ve succeeded in giving up one biased POV and in taking up another. Whether on not you’ve chosen the right “side,” this post lacks critical distance.
Until you loosen your grip sufficiently to give your opponents the credit they deserve, your opinion pieces will lack credibility. You’ll remain part of the American media landscape Problem.
You haven’t finished transforming.
Read Sun Tzu!
Speaking of jokes leading to foot-in- mouth, I missed your article about Bush’s “No Weapons of Mass Destruction here” skit. Care to repost that for us?
In the unlikely event that this little incident prevents the Democrats from gaining control of either house of congress, let the word go forth, that I shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, to personally seek out John F. Kerry and kiss the sonuvabitch.
One thing we can be certain of: Kerry is no stand-up comedian. Even if we accept his weak argument that he was trying to chide the administration, anyone with an ounce of sense (which is to say, almost anyone else) would have seen how that sentence could have been interpreted (or misinterpreted).
Someone is now a “former Kerry speech-writer”.
I was even more offended by his overly irate, Howard Dean-like response. It’s significant that he canceled the next day’s appearances.
I just love the way Bush has jumped onto this in,lieu of anything else to say…
You can look at the man Bush, his sweat pouring down his face, his passion coming out of his soul, his belief in jesus, in god, he is like Hitler in the last days of the war waiting for the last minute miracle of Frederick the Great who trounced his enemies when all looked lost, but he is also more like an evangalist at some deep south voodoo christian gathering, black gathering in the 1930s, like Elmer Gantry, or more like the Rainmaker or evenmore like the council of the defence in ‘INherit the Wind’, no logic just pure faith and pure hate fore anythign that isn’t his world view because that’s where he takes succor from the imbecilic certainties that fire his simpletom followers, the simple folk the simple life….what did socraties say about the unexamined life?
What are you going to vote I wonder?
By the way Im voting Republican…
I have absenteed. I like this guy….and them its good to see him and them and us slowly go mad.
And I dont want a democrat congress to take any credit at all for their follies, or what laughingly passes off as this ‘administration’ or its accountablility especially to posterity…
bliss
The Dems have been running against Bush even though Bush isn’t on the ballot. Now Bush is running against Kerry even though Kerry isn’t on the ballot. The situation has a certain symmetry.
Kerry has been on my ignore list since he called his comrades war criminals at a Senate hearing long ago. I am a veteran and have a long memory.
What Kerry said is no doubt often said in private by those in his camp. This time it slipped out at a public gathering and he was properly nailed for it. If you are a military-hating lefty politician you have to watch the denigrating public pronouncements.
Something has been niggling at my brain today, and it finally hit me on the way home from my second job.
John “Fuckface” Kerry sounds like:
“Our army is composed of the scum of the earth – the mere scum of the earth.”
-ARTHUR WELLESLEY, DUKE OF WELLINGTON
“‘Come on, really. Kerry would have to be an idiot to say in public the military is full of stupid people.'”
Thank you, kungfu, I was going to post the same comment.”
I think you both answered your own question there.
And this was the man that half of the US population voted for.
Thank God Bush “stole” the election, again. 🙂
I talked to a lot of republicans today. Not one of them gives at damn about the Kerry “botched joke” business.
I must admit it is very satisfying to watch the Right grasp at such blades of grass as they slowly slide off the cliff. Maybe, as they realize the end is near, they will apologize to the world for the unbelievable harm they have done to our world but nobody will buy that apology.
By the way Im voting Republican…
I have absenteed. I like this guy….and them its good to see him and them and us slowly go mad.
And I dont want a democrat congress to take any credit at all for their follies, or what laughingly passes off as this ‘administration’ or its accountablility especially to posterity…
That was a joke, right? You’re not really going to vote for people you don’t like just to make a point, right? That has a tendency of coming back to bite such voters.
I talked to a lot of republicans today. Not one of them gives at damn about the Kerry “botched joke” business.
I must admit it is very satisfying to watch the Right grasp at such blades of grass as they slowly slide off the cliff. Maybe, as they realize the end is near, they will apologize to the world for the unbelievable harm they have done to our world but nobody will buy that apology.
…say what? What blades of grass are you referring to, if none of the Republicans cared about what Kerry said?
You’ve got to be kidding. Are you really bending over backwards to make a bit of stuttering into an attack on the US army?
That he was mocking Bush was clear as day.
I can practically smell the fear on this blog…
I don’t remember the Republicans making excuses for some Republicans who made off color remarks, like the Left are now trying to defend Kerry.
Guess those Democrats have the smell of fear about them also. Kerry appearences are being cancelled all over the place. Democrats are also criticizing him.
Keep wearing your filters, boys, so you won’t have to face the fact that no matter what he meant, he said it so very stupidly. Ever thought it was your filters that made it “clear as day”?
“I talked to a lot of republicans today. Not one of them gives at damn about the Kerry “botched joke” business.”
How could they talk when they were laughing so hard? Sure you did.
//his passion coming out of his soul, his belief in jesus, in god, he is like Hitler in the last days of the war waiting for the last minute miracle of Frederick the Great//
‘Cuz, y’know, Hitler prayed to Jesus all the time–like a backwoods preacher….
What is the matter with you lefty sickos?
Ymarsakar, you know your Sun Tzu. Do you figure Bush is a Sage Commander? How do you rate his strategy to Take Whole?
Mr Brain – The Duke of Wellington was no fool.
Gray if you cant think cant debat eand need everything spelt out to you there is a kindergarden site that might be of ionterest to you, if your out of your depth boy, start paddling and stop wasting my time and everyone elses. fquit.
They’re jumping on Kerry a lowest common denominator attack, the stench of imbelcility, the stench of fear from these people, these Major Frank Burnses…
What’s really tragic, really unbelievably moronic is these ppl who have voted for Bush will vote for him again….
There’s one born every minute, and it seems two or three a minute in the good ol us of a.
Say, Gourney, with your spelling prowess, you’d do very well in Mr. Kerry’s Army…
Say, Gourney, with your spelling prowess, you’d do very well in Mr. Kerry’s Army…
…so an anonymous is the first to mention what’s been on everybody’s minds since Gourney appeared. I suppose that’s fitting.
Wait a minute….Yeah you guys are right! Then I could also be swiftboated for my ‘spelleng’ and the real issues would be shat on again….time after time…
Nevermind that fearless…’brainless’ leader (by leader I’m meaning Bush not Cheney incase you’re flat foot wondering) who can’t string a sentence together without having a radio signal fed into his ear, and there are as many Bushisms as there are minutes in the day, but Kerry gaffs and all the sudden its damned ignorant unpatriotic bubble world liberals who cant see the wood from the trees
When will you realize you are exactly the same as the liberals you hate?
Exactly, change a word here or there and the presumptions and arguments you have are identical
What you’re arguing about is actually window dressing.
Welcum to demokracy at work…the kind we want to spread round the woild…in exchange for precious earthly fluids….
Oibrants – couldn’t you say it without someone else saying it first? When did you first feel that you was actually thinkun?
Have you heard? Bush’s autobiography has been knocked back by Random House, they said they’d prefer his collected Bushisms, to give real insight into the man and the period…and his god….
But if it pleases the court I’ll take the time to mind my spelling your honor….so’s you can all sleep at night and think about jesus and Iraq, and Hillary Clinton…
John Kerry and the Democrats never hesitate to let the rest of us know that they are far and away smarter than we are.
If I accept that, then I also have to accept that John Kerry did not “misspeak” and was fully aware of what he was saying and how it would be taken.
Or does he now wish to claim to be ignorant and ill informed? If that is so, why should be pay any attention to what he says?
His choice. Either he is smart and knew what he was saying or he’s a dummy who should be ignored.
What does smart mean though.
Where else does Communism and Socialim (and Islamism) survive and thrive in the West, but in Universities.
I still have not understood how educated people can be such suckers for fascism.
What is the connection between having a PHD and also (for many) a more than passing sympathy for Al Quaeda, (if not in action then at least in its aims).
“Kerry is (and Nixon was) profoundly ill at ease within himself. With forced and awkward affect, it’s as though he’s studied what real people look and sound like, and is desperately trying to imitate it but can never get it quite right….It’s as though Kerry’s a very bad actor playing the part of–himself.”
Only if you’ve spent time with a person like this do you know how creepy it really is. I always thought that a man I know reminded me of Kerry because the two look something alike. But it’s the self-conscious two-handed handshake, the studied affectations of realness (and the intermittent, self-revealing gaffes) that they really share. Until your post, even though I’ve known this guy for more than 25 years I’ve never been able to put a finger on what makes him so disconcerting. Thanks for articulating it.
The only way this conversation can continue is if everyone here, by near-unanimous consent, shuts their eyes and ears to the very obvious reality that it was a lame joke which Kerry flubbed in delivering. I haven’t seen such powerful groupthink since the old USSR split up.
And, obviously, you are part of the other “groupthink”. Are we, perhaps, being divisive because we aren’t agreeing with you?
Still enjoying the image of Hitler on his knees sweating and fervently praying to Jesus just like George Bush!
Notice how Gourney D. attacked my ‘intellect’ and didn’t defend his maladroit metaphor?
–An object lesson in leftist thought and debate–the ugly attitudes and biases unmasked by Kerry’s comment.
But what do I know? I’m just a dumb soldier lookin’ to get stuck in Iraq….
“Kin Ah git me a metaphor license?”
The problem, LA, is that the “lame joke” had, as its basis, the underlying attitude of the left (and the bulk of the Democrat party) that the military is composed of undereducated losers. This attitude is symptomatic of their attitude to security in general, and as such, a relevant indicator of their willingness to do what’s necessary to ensure the security of the country in times of crisis.
Another problem with the statement and that attitude is that it reflects the cluelessness of the left: the U.S. military is the best educated military in the world; it’s better educated than ever before. The fact that so many on the left do not know this is emblematic of their misinformation on a number of levels, and therefore, a reason not to trust them with the reins of government.
That’s why this conversation matters. That’s why Kerry’s “gaffe” (I’m convinced it was nothing of the sort) matters. That’s why we continue to talk about it.
Anon wrote:
Neo-neocon, in switching political camps you’ve succeeded in giving up one biased POV and in taking up another. Whether on not you’ve chosen the right “side,” this post lacks critical distance.
Until you loosen your grip sufficiently to give your opponents the credit they deserve, your opinion pieces will lack credibility. You’ll remain part of the American media landscape Problem.
You haven’t finished transforming.
Beautifully expressed, constructive criticism at it’s best. Who says anonymous posters have nothing to contribute.
Unfortunately if she had more critical distance she would probably have less readers.
MUST READ
Why We Can’t Leave Iraq until We find a Strategy to deal with Iran
Unfortunately if she had more critical distance she would probably have less readers.
Ah, yes…. “Critical distance”–yessss… and some nuance….
–Not like those self-sure conservatives who remind me of the jocks who beat me up in high-school–and my rotten father…. He was always soooo sure of himself….—
Liberalism is a feature of a wounded self.
I’m sorry your daddy left you, UB… Can we fight the Muslim Fascists now?
What’s the difference between Red and Blue..
I have a few Leftist friends, and they honestly believe that the average citizen is an idiot. They regard themselves as the enlightened ones.
Being more intelligent, more informed and of course Liberal, they regard themselves as the natural rullers.
I, being a Conservative, believe in the common sense of the masses against government.
At this point we disagree.
I think Kerry would appeal to my friends.
Speaking of daddies, doesn’t anyone wonder what our dear Christopher Hitchens has to say about this whole thing?
Take a listen here.
Oibrants – couldn’t you say it without someone else saying it first? When did you first feel that you was actually thinkun?
Some of us (actually, most of us, judging from how long it took for somebody to bring up the subject) haven’t lost the ability to be polite.
Not to mention the fact that I’m still suspicious that your Gord-awful typing and grammar is just an act. That by writing like a 10 year old while hurling insults about people’s intelligence, you hope to make people snap from the irony overwhelming. Trolling for n00bs, in other words.
Uh… I think English might not be his first language.
But anyway since when did spelling errors have anything to do with the kind of reasoned, logical discourse you all claim to favor around here? I thought it was only the trolls who engaged in such diversions.
“I still have not understood how educated people can be such suckers for fascism”
It is not lack of education that makes people fascists. There are more important and deep causes, first of all, core beliefs about human destiny, origin of evil and so on: essentially religious questions. That is why political map of Europe had in WWII divides according religious lines: most Catholics became fascists, most Eastern Orthodox countries had romance with Communism, and only Protestants strongly reject both these forms of totalitarism.
The ‘basis’ of the joke was not the stupidity of the soldiers, it was the incompetence and ignorance of President Bush. Is this too difficult a concept to get your heads around? Reading these comments makes me feel like I’ve stumbled onto a conversation betwen the Mad Hatter and the March Hare.
BTW, my brother is serving in Iraq right now. I know for a fact that people in our military aren’t stupid. If the Right is going to insist on treating a missed word in a joke like this, they must think the whole of the American electorate is pretty stupid.
Yeah…. Kerry ‘only left out one word’ when he said this too:
“I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown,” Kerry wrote. “We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply ‘doing its job.'”
PS: Daddy always liked your brother better.
Cowards.
Uh… I think English might not be his first language.
But anyway since when did spelling errors have anything to do with the kind of reasoned, logical discourse you all claim to favor around here? I thought it was only the trolls who engaged in such diversions.
Anon’s quote was humorously appropriate (if mean-spirited) because of how it relates to this entire discussion. I don’t know about anyone else here, but bad typing simply annoys and distracts me (and, if it’s too bad, may make me stop reading the stuff said person types, altogether). I don’t equate it with intelligence, though I might equate it with education, if they are speaking their native language.
That said, I’ve said on other forums that the #1 rule of insults is to not call somebody an idiot in a sentence full of typos and grammar errors; because that will make people laugh at you.
“Kerry ‘wrote’ “? Care to cite a source for that, Gray?
AP new release today….
It was part of his original slander against US soldiers when he returned from his disasterous 4-month tour in Vietnam.
Sheesh. If we neocons were desperate, we’d be out trolling all the liberal blogs, trying to spam out all reasoned debate using a variety of sock puppets with spoofed ip addresses.
Instead, what seems to be happening?
Gray and Im the first to agree with you how you describe yourself – who am I to argue with you about you?
And you all attack Kerry and seek to find in spelling errors and misplaced words meanings proving that liberals are insane and you are all correct. Knodding to each other then accusing liberals of group think. I cant remember any one here actually talking about an issue a current issue, not the battle of the Bulge, not the Ancient Greeks not the Duke of Wellington, many here speak with the same glossing over of facts that you find on the Huffington Post or the Right wing equiv though I dont remember it’s name.
Sorry I will go/type slower, english is not my first language even though I am a citizen. Also point taken I will not attack or insult unless attacked first, ie. MAD
Maladriot is a beautiful word though Gray. But who do you mean by Muslim fascists? Are you really a soldier? Adn do you really believe Kerry was insulting soldiers? Are you a Bush guy?
Tatterdemalian – so you only enjoy talking to people who agree with you? Is that what you find challenging? Your own views confirmed? And how does Reasoned debate fit in that? There has been no reasoned debate in any of these comments except when Anon gives you some facts. All there has been is ‘typical liberal’ ‘did you ever notice how liberals?’ ‘some of my best friends are liberals’ Why are liberals and intellectuals so smart and can’t we cut them down to size by seizing on some completely irrelevant aspect like Kerry’s mouth, Gourney’s spelling, Hillary’s ass…’
And then some historical comparisons with confused ideas of the present and an absolute denial of what is going on in Iraq or American Foreign policy and a defence of Bush at all costs as if he and your opnions are one and the same. As if he cannot ever let you down, and nor should it be seen that you don’t support him.
Also Tallerand as I’ve noticed from liberal blogs, you always miss your trolls when their well runs dry…
I will be your troll but I will refer to you all as trogs.
Also Tallerand as I’ve noticed from liberal blogs, you always miss your trolls when their well runs dry…
Hahaha. This site does get boring right after a ban wave. Fortunately, that usually doesn’t last very long.
Thanks. I’d say those were legitimate concerns back in 1972… Let me see if I can scare up any Bush quotes froom back then…
“Tatterdemalian – so you only enjoy talking to people who agree with you?”
I enjoy talking to people who are polite. If agreeing with me is a prerequisite for that, then so be it. I can read Daily Kos, Eschaton, or even the CNN website if I want an opposing point of view, but I see no need to troll these sites when just reading the existing discussions is quite enough to understand the points of view they wish to express.
Thanks, Neo. I can rely on you to “make crystal clear” the true meaning behind Kerry’s “true statements”. I knew there was something wrong with his first response, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. You did. With gusto.