Thursday, November 2nd, 2006...6:26 am
Piling On
First thing I’d like to say is that John Kerry said something stupid. Yes. He also meant to say something else, and the vast majority of the Republican officials that have been pounding him know it.
Yesterday, John McCain demanded an apology from Kerry, even though he already apologized. Of course, the apology was demanded at an event where McCain was campaigning for Peter Roskam, who has accused of his opponent of being soft on terrorism. Roskam’s opponent is Tammy Duckworth, who lost parts of both her legs to an Iraqi insurgent’s RPG.
George Bush made hay about the statement while making appearances on the Pat Robertson’s (who has made a littany of offensive statements over the last few months) CBN and Rush Limbaugh’s (who thinks mocking Parkinson’s victims is good fun) program.
By the way, I don’t remember McCain or Bush disavowing smears of Kerry’s service record during the 2004 election, or for that matter, smears of the records of Wesley Clark or Max Cleland.
I don’t see why the national media decides to run with this Republican talking point (this is the third day!). Everytime a Democrat says something like this, they are eager to throw a mike in the face of every Democrat demanding a statement. I didn’t see this happening on the other side with the “macaca” slur or any of the statements coming out of the White House that all but accuse their opponents of treachery. Oh, that media, so liberal.
Someone is going to have to explain to me what is more hurtful to a military family: a Senator misspeaking during a speech at a California college that few people have heard of, or that knock on the door telling them that a brother, sister, husband, wife, son or daughter died because this President and the people around him have too much pride to admit their mistakes.
7 Comments
November 2nd, 2006 at 8:01 am
Amen, Tedski
November 2nd, 2006 at 8:16 am
I don’t know whether it was a slip or not, but I do know what he was trying to say. Essentially, most soldiers (especially those who are not officers) come from poorer backgrounds than not, inner city and rural areas of the country, and who have few other options. The military can be their ticket out of the mountains of West Virginia.
The WAY that he said it, did offend people and, damn it, it just came at a poor time. As you drive down the highway, take a quick listen to conservative talk radio where this is being used to connect the dots between all democrat candidates and the likes of Kerry and Pelosi.
This is what conservatives have been able to do for years with MOST democrat candidates. They have been able to paint them as arrogant, out of touch, and as looking down on Americans with lower socioeconomic status. It is why Appalachia has shifted from solid Democrat to Republican in Presidential elections.
Democrats need to think VERY hard about this when they select their Presidential candidate in 2008. Someone who can “relate” and who doesn’t appear boorish or snobbish like an Edwards, an Obama, or someone else out there. I fear that Hillary ends up painted in the same way…and easily.
Damn it that slip pissed me off.
November 2nd, 2006 at 8:29 am
Actually, kralmajales, you missed the point of the joke entirely. This is what Kerry was supposed to say:
“I can’t overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq.”
It was a dig at President Bush, not any kind of statement about poor people or our troops. But thanks for perpetuating a stereotype about West Virginians. (I can hear the banjos now.) Talk about “out of touch,” huh? Physician, heal thyself.
Tedski, good post but McCain actually did stand up for Kerry during those attacks on his service in 04. Otherwise, well said.
November 2nd, 2006 at 9:00 am
Dude…im FROM West Virginia and it ain’t no stereotype. The last thing I meant was that my follow Mountaineer (who I hope kick some ass tonight in Kentucky) are stupid, lazy or hillbilly.
What I mean to say is that out of the top 20 employers in my home, 17 are retail. The number one employer…Walmart…yes…WALMART. There used to be factories, chemical companies, and they have since left…overseas or down to Louisiana.
What I meant when I said few opportunities is very very real. If you grow up in Elkins WV or Beckley, and you don’t have the dough to go to college you go into the military…and proudly.
I don’t know whether it was a mistated joke or not. I worry about the impact of it now. Although, one nice thing might come of this. It gets Iraq back in the news instead of the economy or any other issue republicans might have used to salvage themselves.
November 2nd, 2006 at 1:29 pm
kralmajales,
Why has economic development bypassed West Virginia? The whole state is breathtakingly beautiful. Why has it not been “discovered?”
November 2nd, 2006 at 2:47 pm
This post has been removed by the author.
November 2nd, 2006 at 3:16 pm
There is a very, very disturbing Iraq related story out in the Arizona Daily Sun today (Flagstaff). It states that Alyssa Peterson, a soldier from Flagstaff committed suicide in Iraq in Sept. 2003 in order to avoid participating in interrogation techniques that she found inhumane.
I won’t editorialize on this. You can read the link yourself:
http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2006/11/02/news/20061102_news_30.txt
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