"if the party had defended Kerry's dropped pronoun the way they defended Clinton's dropped pants"

[Leopolds Ghost]

blm wrote this in the overlong "is Kerry finished?" thread, I thought it was just too good a line.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2571687

Do you think Bill Maher and his guests have a clue that Kerry's joke was in reference to qualifications for President and not qualifications for armed forces? Or are they JUST. THAT. STUPID.?

I think a large number of Democrats and the Punditocracy still haven't had the joke explained to them. It's quite a funny joke.

"Stay in school, or you might end up as President of the United States
and get us into a war with a country that didn't attack us."

On edit: "us" is the pronoun here.

Maher, a comedian who committed a much worse faux pas on national television saying something he actually intended, likes to pretend he hasn't used the Jay Leno version himself.

Kerry's main problem is he doesn't know how to recover from a flubbed line.

But Dems like Hillary and Biden will attack him for flubbing his lines when they refuse to pounce on Bush's similar missteps because "Everyone knows Bush didn't mean that... the American People(tm) know what he meant and find his folksy malapropisms endearing." Any hypocrisy here?

Their objective is to find a folksy, millionaire candidate who is not a class traitor like Kerry, and has a Straussian penchant for demagoguing religious values and and politics they secretly don't support.

At a recent campaign stop according to NPR, Hillary told people "Bush's values are NOT Republican values; they are NOT conservative values!"

[Eric J in MN]

1. Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton aren't looking for a candidate.

They want to be president.

[Leopolds Ghost]

2. Even worse, IMO.

[VPStoltz]

3. First, shut the fuck up Hillary...

And second, hasn't Kerry figured out his is NOT funny. As Leno said, "Who can't make a Bush joke work? It really would have been funny had he looked like he had to read the joke and then actually read the joke word for word. What a putz.

[Leopolds Ghost]

6. I heard Leno flub the same joke in the same way

so all I can say is "Oh, SHAddup!" :-)

[Bucky]

4. It's about Democratic values. I can forgive his womanizing if his wife does. But bad grammar...?

...that I can never forgive. I may talk about the horrid waste of human life in an unnecessary war, but in reality I loathe Bush for his syntax.

[Leopolds Ghost]

9. Sadly, there are many affluent people who feel this way.

It is all a game to them -- a grist for cocktail mill at the next Blue Dog Democratic Luncheon in their posh, "socially liberal" suburb. Who cares about war -- has he got "it"? Has he got "sexy"?

[JeffR]

5. Senator Clinton is increasingly credible as a spokesperson for

Republican values, since she's spent so much of the last two years trying to embrace them.

[Leopolds Ghost]

7. The secret is, she knows she can't win in the South, and

Big Business pays her a lot of money to convince her that even though Kerry supposedly can't win in the South either, SHE has the support of the socially liberal Business Elite and that makes all the difference for reaching out to affluent Soccer Moms.

Her husband passed the law that allowed them to kill Kerry's campaign -- she has one over on them!

That's her "northern strategy" -- rack in the bucks from the businessmen who benefited under Clinton, even as the same people spend money and airtime attacking Kerry from 2002 on.

Of course Big Business merely wants Hillary to THINK she can become the next President.

[JeffR]

8. My understanding is she's been a pretty good senator for New York

especially for a rookie.:shrug: I only hope she stays with that job instead of seeking another one.

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. New York loves Rockefeller Repubs, and she is one

The only "liberal" bone in her body is her desire to rescusitate the HMO Act that would require every American to do business with one of a list of private, for-profit insurers -- like Massachusetts just did. Fascism personified, if you ask me.

And a poor substitute for single-payer that mplies that the only problem with US healthcare is that some people refuse to be insured -- sort of like San Franciscans saying the problem with the homeless is that too many of them are on the welfare rolls.

What do you expect from a state where the median home price in Manhattan County is $1.5 million and they just sold off 100,000 units of public housing thanks to the bill Hillary's husband signed?

[JeffR]

11. I've seen indications that she's pretty popular upstate

where the New Economy has left so many behind. I don't pay much attention to NY politics, or to Mrs. Clinton. But I'm already sick to death of this bullshit about her presidential hopes. She has as much chance of being elected president as our beagle, I think. The beagle concurs, FWIW.

[MH1]

12. Amplification on the Clinton comparison

provided downthread in that long thread by karynnj:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2571687&mesg_id=2575211

karynnj Sat Nov-04-06 04:52 PM
Response to Reply #210
229. Fair is fair

Let's compare these 3 cases, 2 Clinton 1 Kerry:

Bill Clinton was accused of having sex with an intern. In February, he says "I did NOT have sex with that woman" in August, he admitted an inappropriate relationship. Think of the ramifications for Democrats if he had simply apologized a day later like Kerry did for the offense of misreading a joke and leaving out a pronoun because he was exhausted from appearing all over the country to help Democrats, complicated by the "HeyJohn" friendly fire the week before.

Also, lets stop being hypocrites. In truth, Kerry did nothing that he should be ashamed of here. He then within hours of the RW attack got the documents to the media and gave a response attacking the distortion. The next day he apologized because he knew some vets believed the lie and he wanted to both reassure them and apologize for his part - which was only botching a joke.

Clinton should NEVER have been asked those questions, but the fact is had he told the truth immediately and apologized, there would have been no impeachment. The 6 month wait, while he lied to everyone including Hillary and his cabinet - who were all out defending Clinton. Then he lied under oath - which shows disrespect for the justice process. I have 3 daughters, who ranged from 8 to 13 at that time. So, I care that this story was unavoidable for at least a year.

The fact is that a few months ago, all the Clinton fans were delighting in his fight against the evil monster, Chris Wallace. A person, with the status of ex-President was able to rage at a Fox newscaster. Hillary was out saying how this showed that Democrats were able to fight back. Hundreds of Democrats, including Kerry backed Clinton. I heard no official Democrat comment that his anger was understandable but he looked like a bully.

Kerry faced a Drudge/blogs/cableshows/Snow/President Bush attack (running that gamut in less than half a day) smear. The smear was on an issue that went to the heart of who he is. He has worked for veterans since the early 1970s. The MSM repeated it. He responded that day with the TRUTH, got the transcripts out and in explaining the joke got in a powerful attack on Bush's mishandling of Iraq. Hillary then came out and ... attacked Kerry. stunning, I guess you can only fight back if you are a Clinton or in defense of one. Kerry then apologized - just to the vets and servicemen hurt by it.

Another factor is that the timing on this was exquisitely awful for Kerry. Instead of being allowed to continue fighting back after his first response, which was cheered by many activists, he was told to STFU because of the election. And because Kerry cares about more than himself, he agreed to do that - thus the follow up apology for something he never should have had to apologize for. But if he hadn't apologized, there was the potential of negatively influencing the elections (which polls show did not happen with the way he handled it). Apologizing was the quickest way to get the spotlight off his trivial mis-speak, and get it back on the numerous real failures of the republicans. Yet at the same time, it plays into the narrative that will later be used against him - by members of his own party as well as the official opposition.

John Kerry took one for the team here. But I am confident that the "team" will never appreciate it or give him his due.