Posted by
Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 12:32:45 PM
By now everyone has heard
John Kerry's remarks at Pasadena City College at a rally for the guy running against Schwarzeneger (whoever he is). Now I can see how it could be a botched joke. It is possible that Kerry (no genius himself) could have meant the "joke" to be that President Bush -- Yale grad, Harvard MBA -- is an uneducated boob, although how he could arrive at that conclusion is a bit murky. And it is possible that he simply misread the "joke". And
his attempted explanation on Imus this morning didn't exactly clarify matters.
What I don't get is why he would refuse to apologize to the troops he offended. Really, how hard is that to do? "Look, I intended to skewer Bush and his cronies for their mishandling of Iraq, but on hearing my remarks, I can understand how they can be interpreted as impugning our armed forces. That was not, and never has been, my intent, and I apologize if my words implied that it was." That's all it would take, and the controversy (at least as to the vast majority of Americans) would be over.
The only rational explanation that I can come up with is that he really, truly, is not sorry for offending the troops. And his explanation, essentially, is that if the troops had half a brain, they'd understand that it was a Bush joke. And that's the whole problem, and why the Kerry flap is going to re-energize the Republican base.