What the hell is it with Kerry? Isn’t it enough that he lost in 2004? Now he’s trying to take out his party in 2006 as well?
I swear, Quebec, Massachusetts, and France should unite and become the Land of Misfit States or something.
A week before Election Day and what does Kerry do? Botch a joke that tried to insult the Bush Administration by saying that they didn’t study enough and are new screwing up in Iraq. However, it came out as an insult to anyone wearing – or has previously worn – a US Armed Forces uniform by inferring that they only joined the Army because they didn’t study in school. Paraphrasing? Yeah, but I saw the clip: trust me… even though it’s one word that went wrong, his delivery makes it come out like that.
I could forgive him the flub. Wouldn’t be the first time someone used the wrong word in a speech. Wouldn’t even be the first time that a comment got twisted from an insult to one person into a massive debacle against many people. My problem with this is that of Timing and Fall Out.
Timing? I direct that not to John Kerry but to John Kerry’s speech writer. After all, today’s politician isn’t allowed to freely speak. Not after what the media did to poor Howard Dean. Ted Kennedy doesn’t even order his own drinks anymore without a teleprompter… good thing those things are portable now. Hell, today I was wondering if John McCain was replaced by a Disney “Hall of Presidents” type animatron thingy. Poor guy keeps on being thrown in front of a camera as “the one sane Republican that the press feels they can talk to” – he looks like that if he makes one motion too many the press will eat him and his family.
No, part of the blame goes to the speech writer. Even if the joke was delivered correctly, it’s was still a vague one. So-so in humor. Wouldn’t have helped the Democrats much, IMHO. After all, what’s the message? The Bush Administration is fuckin’ up? Duhhhhh. That’s on the news more often than the weather these days – one more log on the fire wasn’t needed. The public agrees.
True, Kerry did botch the joke. Not only did he screw up the wording, but his delivery sounded like he was one of the good ol’boys that he was trying to insult – even his tone was condescending and smarmy. “Stay in school and you can make good decisions!” Um, I’d say the majority of the jamokes in all three branches of our government have masters degrees, at least… so… I don’t get it? Since when is having a degree a guarantee that your smarter? The two can be mutually exclusive… you know that’s true.
Fall out? Oi. I need to start changing the channel after the local morning news ends. Good Morning America gives me gout.
McCain was on today, talking to Diane Sawyer. Diane’s big question for him? “Is it fair” that Kerry’s flub is being taken out of context? “Is it fair” that with sites like YouTube anything a government representative says can be shared across the world instantly? What the hell?! Is it fair? What does that have to do with anything relating to the press? Just sour grapes that ABC News didn’t break the story? Or would they have not even talked about it? Scary shit, that: flub or not, intent or not, Kerry insulted the people that have voluntarily joined our armed forces. Those people should be off limits to this kinda shit. You can’t go shooting off comments like that and then say “oops, that was a typo”. “Republicans have little dicks. Oops, I meant little brains. Bygones.” Nope. Doesn’t work. Since 1950, the camera is always rolling; since 2004 it’s simply shared world wide.
McCain said it simply: he just needs to apologize and then we can move on.
Not Kerry. Nope. He doesn’t get it: instead of simply apologizing and diffusing the issue, he’s off trying to defend the joke and correct what he said. Instead of containing the damage he’s continuing to piss gasoline onto it. And that feeds Diane even more.
You see, the biggest problem with this is that instead of talking about things that matter we are now going to talk about this high school level pissing match. Kerry caused it; Republicans are terrified that they’re going to lose ground in the House and Senate – especially if left to issues alone – so they’re going to pounce on it. It’s like being handed a golden Wonka ticket. The press can’t let it go now, and since they control the news fire hose, we – as the public – are trapped by it.
I swear: Kerry should be the poster boy for Republican Momentum. First the “vote for me because I’m not him” campaign and now this – depending on his actions over the next five days, he very well may have helped tank the Democratic drive this year.
I should switch from Independent to Libertarian or something.
Bygones.
He apologized: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061101/pl_nm/usa_elections_kerry_dc_10
Yeah, I saw that @ the gym today – shame it’s too little too late, for most. Altho on KISW’s afternoon show they were beating down people that didn’t “see the joke for what it was”, which almost had me go off the road: not because of the joke itself, but that they were willing to say “Oh he didn’t mean it like that” for what he said. To me that implies that any public figure can say whatever they want and shirk responsibility with a “Oh you didn’t get the joke?” and it’s viable. Fox News DID make a good point tho – Hillary can now go for the nomination uncontested… this should have burned all sorts of bridges for Kerry in his Party.
Pandora never could get that box closed.
Its me again…
I was bored yet again and started searching what ‘randee’ ment.
… I wish I hadn’t now. Sorry if I am not aloud sware words.
‘Maine ek randee ko chod diya’ – I fucked a prostitute.(used as verb) http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=randee
I give you a clue, chod means Fucked.
Could be worst, he could be hitting on little boys with his blackberry. Or leaving offensive voice mails. This is a dumb joke that was blown out of proportion by desperate Republicans. It’s sad really if this is the best they got.
That’s the problem. Not the joke. The fact that he handed the Republicans a near perfect weapon less than a week before the election. He didn’t need the joke. He didn’t even need to attempt the joke. He totally fucked himself and helped to fuck his party in the process. If this is the best that the Republicans got, why give it to them?
Well that and the press won’t let it die either. Broke three different ways in the morning news. :)
*sigh* My junior Senator is a bonehead. The ‘joke’ was truly dumb – jokes like that should be KISS, not all that complicated – but the timing is just incredibly dumb.
For some reason Kerry has it in his head that he has a chance to get the nomination in 2008, so I think that he is trying to act like a ‘party leader’ or some such nonsense. The best news to come out of this is that he has likely derailed any remote chance that he had to be nominated in 2008. Maybe he can actually work as a legislator now!
But when the Republican party is basically imploding all the Democrats really have to do is say we can do better. Trying to twist the knife gets you nowhere, especially when you botch it. I am thinking that in the end, though, that this will not really help too many Republicans turn the tide.
No it wont help them at all, they are screwed beyond all help now. The press is already done with this, but continue reminding people of the all the scandals the Republicans have been involved with. This will be pretty amusing to watch. Bush and his lackeys are going to be lame ducks pretty soon.
@doog – ah see, I don’t agree with you there: just saying “We’re better than that guy” is what helped Kerry lose in ’04. The best thing the Democrats could have done this year – being totally honest – was say nothing. Or at least nothing new. Alls they had to do was keep on keeping on and they coulda scored either house, if not both.
It’s like poker… if I got a pair of 2’s, it’s not that good of a hand right? Yet if everyone else has Ace High, it’ll win you the pot. In this case, the Dems were sitting on a Flush – the problem is that the Reps went from being sitting on Two Pair to raising with a Full House. Should be interesting to see how it unfolds.
@Obed – the press is a fickle mistress and certainly pro-Democrat when all things are equal – the thing is that they’re more pro-Scandal than anything else. Could be a foot race to see who fucks up worse in the end game.
I can’t believe I didn’t get any props for a non-partisan post. Jeesh. Tough room :)
Next thing you know, John Kerry will be starring in the next Vonage commercial (you know, the one where people do stupid things and get whacked on the head with a box from Vonage).
Woo-hoo, hoo hoo hooo!!
True, it was bad blow from the Dems, and some undecided voters may switch to GOP at the polls – whether it makes a difference in the tight Congressional races, we’ll see after Election Day.
Here in Connecticut, there is an anti-incumbant wave of disgust against many of the sitting Repulicans in our congressional districts, I don’t think the Kerry gaffe will have any impact here. Too many angry dems who want the bums thrown out. One thing is for sure, we don’t have paper ballots, and we don’t have electronic ballots, just those 100 year old mechanical voting booths.
HAH @ Vonage!
@Tom – not too surprising. I mean how many Republicans got arrested for some abuse of office over the last four years? Three? Not only that but the state has always been Democrat-heavy, historically, thanks to Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford. Only Fairfield County any Republican blue blood and that’s too small a number to over power the state, especially these days.
Yeah, Fairfield County – land of the haves and have nots. Not sure if any middle class folks are left there (except me), but keep an eye on the election results for the Shays-Farrell congressional race. Independent voters (non-affiliated with any party) could be a major factor this year; they could make the difference if a large independent voter turnout occurs. I heard there are more independent voters than registered Republicans or registered Democrats in the state.