Eisboch wrote:


If he had any class or brains he would have immediately called a press
conference. clarified his statement and apologized for the misunderstanding.
He has not. In fact he refuses to. Instead, he is blaming the opposition
for using his screw-up to their political advantage.

You missed the coverage of the press conference? Kerry was in Seattle
for at least part of yesterday, and the press conference may have been
held at the Westin- but in any event portions of it were shown on CNN.
Bush has very cleverly painted Kerry into a corner in this game of
political chess. If Kerry apologizes for the "misunderstanding", that
will be spun as an "apology for his insult to the troops- see, he knows
how wrong it was to insult the troops and furthermore he is
flip-flopping again!". Kerry should have read from his prepared text
and not tried to wing the original joke. He's not really a statesman,
and he's even less a comedian. (Prepared text of the original speech is
available in this morning's papers. This text is often handed out in
advance to the press covering speeches, so the original cameraman may
well have known that his clip was an attempt to capitalize on a
misstatement and did not represent Kerry's theme of the speech or his
intended remark).

Not to say that Kerry has brains or class, but the point I have been
trying to make throughout has been validated by additional revelation:
Any time somebody comes forward with a few seconds of a long speech,
snipped out of context, and proclaims "look what
so and so said" the evidence is dubious at best. The remark was part of
a series of "shots" Kerry was taking at Bush. It is George Bush, not
the troops, that finds himself and his administration "stuck in Iraq"
(due, in part, to poor pre-war intelligence as well as a disregard for
history and further disregard for expert advice). The reason for the
brevity of the clip is *exactly* as I theorized, the material on either
side of it would refute the spin that the administration is trying to
put on that 10 second extract of the speech.

Kerry isn't running for office this year, but the R's know for a fact
that a lot of voters will hear their spin on Kerry's remark and
conclude: "I'm a-gonna vote fer them thar Republicans thisa year.
Lookie here, them thar Democrats *all* think the troops is stupid!"
It's why the game of politics, as played today by both sides, is such
bull****. Everybody is pandering to people who vote emotionally rather
than thoughtfully evaluating individual candidates and issues. It's a
time when Republicans running for office against Democratic incumbents
are saddled with undeserved baggage over the Iraq war, when in some
cases the Democratic incumbents have supported the war until the last
year or so and of course the Republican challengers *never* voted on it
at all. The intellectually lazy will get sucked in by the rhetoric.
(See McGovern Vs Cantwell in WA State). Democrats running against
Republican incumbents are saddled with the Republican "trigger" issues;
gay marriage, abortion, etc- so there is plenty of dirt on both sides.

GWB has flubbed a few lines as well, and like every president I can
remember and almost certainly ever president before that he has been
subject to vicious criticism while in office. Politics is not for the
thin skinned.