Kerry apologizes for "botched" Iraq joke

[maxrandb]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061101/ts_nm/usa_elections_kerry_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Sen. John Kerry said on Wednesday he was sorry about a "botched joke" that drew election-year fire from President George W. Bush and other Republicans who accused him of insulting U.S. troops in Iraq.

Kerry reiterated the target of his joke was Bush, who immediately seized on the senator's remarks to rally Republican supporters ahead of Tuesday's elections, in which the party's control of Congress is at risk

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Idiot! I'm sure now this will all go away and Limpballs and Hannity will stop pounding this drum.

Can't wait for the first "he apologized before he didn't apologize" crack from the Right-wing noise machine.

I don't blame Kerry. I blame the handful of spineless Democrats who cower in fear that perhaps the wing-nuts will pick on them.

[bluestateguy]

1. Elaborate please.

nt

[saigon68]

16. Its Bush Bot KARL ROVE at his best smoke and mirrors

When your Boss is the WORLD'S BIGGEST DRAFT DODGER, WAR CRIMINAL AND CHIMPANZEE ----distract the Sheep.

OR IF THE FOX STEALS YOUR CHICKENS---SHOOT YOUR PIG

[Demit]

2. Link link link.

[asthmaticeog]

3. This needs a link to a news source or it doesn't belong in LBN.

[maxrandb]

5. Edited to add link

it's a Yahoo story

[ixion]

4. and thus loses the debate

score another for spinelessness. :-(

[sui generis]

6. oh I hope not.

Why should he apologize for a botched joke when Bush has an entire DYSLEXICON attributed to him?

Bush is a fucking idiot, and in fact lowers the bar and holds the record for qualifying as an idiot. When Bush apologizes for being a murderous sociopathic tongue tied addle brained idiot, it might be appropriate for Kerry to apologize for stumbling on a joke.

[jumpoffdaplanet]

27. He only apologized for botching the joke

not for telling the joke, which he's told before.

What he needs to do now is tell the joke correctly whereever he can.

He should shove it down the RW's throats until they STFU.

[sui generis]

29. the words "I'm Sorry" should never ever have crossed his lips

there is no reason to apologize for botching a joke unless the chronically unmollified intend to apologize for thinking the worst.

There is a dynamic here that Kerry fundamentally does not understand. I was so happy for 12 hours that he seemed to have grown a pair, but that vaunted senatorial decorum ate his head of steam.

The lesson is, when we REACT to something the other side demands, we've lost. When we make THEM react we've won.

Kerry had the perfect opportunity to jerk the rug out from under their feet since they were already off balance (or imbalanced, as the case may be), but "sorry" in any context whatsoever should not have crossed his lips.

It's like they keep pointing at his stomach and he keeps looking down to line his head up for the next noogie.

I know I'm ranting - I just want him to be slaughter them, and furthermore, to get it right the first time, every time, all of the next times.

[KSU Wildcat]

50. JOKE????

I see no humor in anything he was trying to say. Cold hard facts...yes.

Would somebody explain to me what would be funny even if he said it the way he intended.

IMHO we would all be better off if he would just stfu and stay out of sight. He is about to blow our hard fought gains for this midterm election.

[sui generis]

52. hey fellow wildcat

it doesn't matter if you see the humor. Other, older meaner people have. We've been to this rodeo and we know the difference between a steer and a bull.

Welcome! I'll give a stab at explaining. He was talking about George W. Bush being a C Student and getting us stuck in Iraq. He botched the punch line.

I'll repeat, NOBODY who is a veteran is going to make light of fellow soldiers dying in Iraq. As a student you are familiar with Occams Razor - this is a good place to use it.

Don't buy into everything you hear in the press when you have a perfectly good brain yourself and are hopefully also a good critical thinker.

:hi:

[The Stranger]

7. They have fucked you so many times, John, yet you let them, over and over.

Why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why?

[calimary]

48. I don't know. He's not a newbie. WTF is the matter with him? Didn't

he learn ANYTHING from the last campaign, when he allowed himself to walk into all kinds of shit? He hasn't learned ANYTHING by now? He hasn't learned ANYTHING about not giving the enemy a frickin' SCRAP to use against you? He can't even tell a frickin' JOKE correctly, without botching it and giving the enemy a hole the size of the Holland Tunnel to ram through?

That just does it for me. THANKS for the distraction, John. Thanks for throwing THEM some nice red meat. I don't care HOW MUCH you didn't mean it. I don't care if, even in truth, you didn't give them that much to work with if you go splitting hairs (which no one cares about or has time to listen to). There's just NO EXCUSE. And if ANYBODY ought to know what these schmucks are capable of, and what they'll pull, the lengths they'll go to, the lies they tell, the spin machine they keep so well-oiled and cranked up on high around the clock, IT'S YOU, DAMMIT!!! These assholes will use WHATEVER there is, and get some mighty nice mileage out of it, especially when they have millions of despairing, discontented minions literally STARVING for something - ANYTHING - they can sink their teeth into. DAMMIT, John!!! What on earth were you doing three years ago, and two years ago? Did you think this was an ice cream social and everybody was going to behave honorably? Did you think you understood it better now? Have you even figured out YET whom you're dealing with, here?

I'm really disgusted. John Kerry of ALL people should know better than to do the enemy a favor, and provide them with a nice break that they can manipulate and misconstrue with all the machinery they have at their disposal to send this shit around the world and back 59,000 times. Didn't he learn A SINGLE THING from having suited up against them in 2004?????

The answer to all those questions just above, at least to me, sadly, is no. I don't care WHAT'S said, WHAT'S explained, or even what the actual reality was. It's what's PERCEIVED, and what's MANIPULATED FROM THAT PERCEPTION that counts. The damage is already done. If he's going to make a gaffe like this, even a PERCEIVED gaffe, even a MISCONSTRUED gaffe that gives the enemy a lot of opportunity to make hay at our expense (even if they lie and distort and misrepresent it - they're STILL gonna use whatever tiny shards they can scrape off the surface of the dumpster and make hay with it), then I give up. I give up on him. Shame on him! I hope to GOD he doesn't run in 2008. They'll serve him up on a skewer. AGAIN.

[blm]

8. He said he was sorry he botched the joke BUT NOT SORRY for attacking Bush

. Big difference.

[maxrandb]

12. Doesn't matter

If you've watched the Right-Wing-Noise Machine in action, with a compliant media, and an American populace that can barely sit still for a half-hour sitcom...it doesn't matter. America stopped doing nuance decades ago. All they need to do now is point out that Kerry apologized, and voilla, they make the case that he must have done something to apologize for.

How many times have you seen Bush or Cheney apologize?

How many times have you seen Limpballs or Insanity apologize?

How many times have you seen Tom Delay apologize?

Bottom line is that there are a lot of folks that won't sit through an explanation...no matter how simple it is...they'd much rather get their exercise by jumping to conclusions. Here's what this will boil down to

- Kerry said something
- The right wing jumped and screamed in outrage that he "insulted the military"
- A few Dems joined in with the right-wing
- Kerry apologized

That's it.

Now, I still don't think this will amount to a hill of beans when it comes to deciding this election, but why apologize? Does he think that Rush won't hammer him today?

[blm]

17. Imus asked him, and Kerry said he's sorry for botching a joke, but not

sorry for something he DIDN'T DO which is malign the troops.

[fujiyama]

54. This makes me really question his judgement

He's done a great job the last two years opposing just about everything Bush has put forward. And him making statements condemning Bush is great. I was especially glad he brought up Katrina the other day, a failure of this administration that is all but forgotten to many.

But making a statement that can be perceived (and that is the key word) as insulting the troops is like kicking a grandma and eating a puppy. As a politician he's gotta be smarter, especially before an election which is ours to lose. He's gotta know when a statement can be perceived in some other way than it was intended. After all, "I voted for it before I voted against it" came to define Kerry to too many people unfortunately.

[William Bloode]

9. Kinda what i thought he should have done in the first place.

My thinking said he should say he appologizes to any troops who may have miscontrued his remarks, and that his remarks were intended for shrubo, for whom there is no appology.

I do agree with others that now, was not the time to do this. He shoulda stuck to his guns.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[grasswire]

11. why would Kerry staff notify you?

that seems odd.

[BrokenBeyondRepair]

13. spineless.. the joke appropriate whether meant for bush or the troops

[deadparrot]

14. Jesus. Can we move on now?

If the MSM had paid this much attention to the "evidence" in favor of invading Iraq, maybe we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now.

[Supersedeas]

34. Whorah, Tucker, Paula, and Joe (Mark Karr) Scarborough need something sensational

to talk about...something sensational and not disparaging of Re-pigs.

[confludemocrat]

15. Who didn't see this coming? A man who looks like that and makes bad Jokes

not a good combination. A google news headline from somewhere says he's fighting back. Heard his attack on Snow yesterday (that's good). Where's one on Bush? You're fighting for you tenuous political life, pal, get loose!!!

[mrcheerful]

18. Better that Kerry explains that he missed the punch line then have the pukes trying to

make this into an issue. I mean the pukes Queer smear fear tactics aren't working so what have they left to do? Make issues out of non issues. Come on this is not the same thing as Allen attacking a person who was dark skinned with racial slurs. Big deal, we all know its not rich fat cats kids that join the military and fight americas wars, its working class kids that can't find employment nor can their parents afford to send them to college that join the military and are put on the front lines. And its not the foot soldier that gets us into these type of conflicts, its the rich fat cats wanting more government hand outs to make them richer and fatter that start these conflicts. This didn't even become an issue until Rove and shrub tried to make a big deal out of it. How many times have any of us told a joke and screwed up the punch line? It happens a lot to people who don't have a fine sense of humor because they take life seriously. Kerry is one of those serious types who have a hard time expressing humor.

[RatRacer]

19. Link to Imus clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T26l5gkMu-g&eurl=">Imus Show

[NVMojo]

20. try walking in Kerry's shoes, including serving in Viet Nam and being

slandered for it. It's easy to be a desktop political jockey.

[shawcomm]

21. Fuck. I was just about to post on another thread my support for him.

Even had he meant it they way the reich wingers are saying, it still works. If you don't take education seriously, remain ignorant and don't work hard, the military is one of the last places of refuge. While Kerry was targeting the shrub, it is still the truth that the rich white rulers of this country will use you if you aren't smart enough to stay out of the military.

Either way, Kerry was right and now he apologizes for being right. Why does this feel like election night with him all over again, never putting up a fight. Our guys always tuck their tails and run at the first onslaught of a repug smear campaign. :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Fluffdaddy]

24. What Kerry said "by mistake" was stupid. He sould have apologizes 18 hours ago

[WildEyedLiberal]

36. No, he's not

He apologized for mangling his syntax, not for the criticism or for some make-believe slight against "the troops."

He's not apologizing "to the troops" - if you want to be mad at spineless Dems, be mad at Landreiu, Ford, and Tester who drank the GOP Koolaid on this.

[ecstatic]

43. yes and no. I was almost in the military through college ROTC

in which case, I would have been a Commissioned officer with a college education. Thank goodness I bailed out of ROTC well before things got to that point.

[MGD]

22. Snow is still drgaging this shit out for the Republicans. They have nothing better to talk about

It reminds me of an internet fight about punctuation and semantics.

[Exiled in America]

23. For fucks sake. This is why we lose.

[Fluffdaddy]

25. With less then a week to go..........Damn

[MGD]

26. This isn't going to save their asses. It will mobilize the 30 percenters

who were planning on voting Republican anyways.

[humbled_opinion]

28. The quicker it goes away the better. n/t

[rodeodance]

30. our troops are being blown up while the children play

[rodeodance]

31. rec.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Katzenjammer]

33. A *JOKE*!? People are BEING KILLED by the hundreds daily and this putz makes a JOKE out of it?

What do you call someone who makes a joke out of crimes against humanity and other people's heartbreak?

[chill_wind]

35. George W. Bush. Any questions? nt

[JudyM]

38. It wasn't a "joke" to be funny but to drive a point home about *'s rush to war

without first learning about the situation. He's way more sensitive to other people'ws suffering than shrub is!

[sui generis]

55. rrrrr?

in your own words what exactly did you think he meant?

George Bush was a C student. George Bush got us stuck in Iraq. Where is the confusion?

BTW, outrage outrage OUTRAGE I TELL YOU (gasp, weep) kind of gets in the way of being taken seriously around here.

(Clicks nails on pearls, exits.)

[VegasWolf]

37. Has Kerry apologized to the Swift Boat Vets yet? /sarc nt

[glitch]

40. He needs to talk to that poor fool Cheney shot about how to apologize to

Republicans. Nothing else will do. I think the whole damn world is sick of their tantrums and the people who buy into them.

I know I am.

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Megahurtz]

41. I don't know what there was to apologize for.

Who the Hell wants to be stuck in Iraq anyway?:shrug:
Kerry should not have apologized because all it does is make these sleazebag-crooks run with it.
It's such an incredibly stupid thing to make a big deal over anyway.
There was nothing to apologize for.

The ReThugs are just searching for anything to haggle over at the Democrats.
And Bush is upset because he just wants more willing soldiers for his War-Profit Machine,
and that's the only reason why he wants no negativity over it.
Utterly ridiculous.:argh:

[ecstatic]

42. this is why its so hard to stand behind Kerry

The minute you want to support his action he goes and renigs it. I hate being jerked around by him.

[olshak]

44. I think that...

...Kerry grew a spine about two years too late.

[nebula]

45. Kerry is one of the most horrible, uninspiring speakers I ever heard

Every time he opens his mouth he gives the right more ammuntion to attack the left.

[TheCowsCameHome]

46. Some folks just aren't capable of making a joke. Kerry is one of them.

I don't even see what his joke was supposed to be. If you have to explain it, it flopped.

Those that can't tell a good joke should leave it to others.

[JackORoses]

47. the joke is

that our President is an idiot. And it's pretty funny.

George Bush and his administration are the only ones stuck in Iraq.
Our troops aren't really stuck there. They could come home at any time, but Bush won't allow them to.

[TheCowsCameHome]

49. Bush is worse than an idiot. And its pretty pathetic.

But anything that even remotely comes across as dissing the soldiers doesn't play well.

Of course Kerry didn't intend to demean the military.

But his line flopped.

[OKNancy]

51. yahoo has updated the story at this link

for what it's worth

[katty]

53. STOP APOLOGIZING!! Democrats 2 words for ya: GROW UP!!!!

[maddezmom]

56. locking, updated link here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2591098&mesg_id=2591098