JohnH wrote:

I love that line: "Bush has very cleverly painted Kerry into a corner in
this game of political chess."

Yes Chuck, you and Chris Mathews are of the same mold. Kerry should have
apologized for his misstatement. (If that's what it was.) He could have
done so easily and gotten himself off the hook with which he was
*self*-impaled.

Don't impugn the intellectually lazy. Most of them will vote for a
Democrat, and most don't watch the news anyway.

Well, Kerry has now apologized. And, as I predicted this morning, the
response to this apology has been renewed charges of "flip-flopping".
Can't win either way. Kerry did not apologize immediately after making
the statement because he had no idea how damaging that short phrase,
pulled out of context, would be. In his mind, he made and delivered an
entire speech with a series of jabs at GWB. It took 24 hrs for Kerry to
realize that some clever propagandist had isolated that single phrase
and spun it like a top.

What Kerry *should* have done was to offer a more complete explanation
at yesterday's news conference. Instead, he allowed his anger to be
evident and that is always a loser's move. Instead of yakking about how
most of the Bush administration were Republican hacks that had "never
worn the uniform," etc, he *should* have said. "It has come to my
attention that a portion of my remarks, taken out of context, are being
circulated as some indication that I believe that our brave men and
women serving in Iraq may be undereducated. Nothing could be further
from the truth, and as a veteran myself I know full well the kind of
dedication and sacrifice required of our service members on a daily
basis. Like most Americans, I am grateful for their service. The point
of my remark was intended to be that intellectual laziness is partially
responsible for the current administration being 'stuck in Iraq'. I
apologize for phrasing my remark so carelessly that it was possible to
be manipulated into a hurtful and inconsiderate statement. I apologize
to any service people or their families who were upset as a result of
the isolation from context and the mischaracterization of my remarks by
my political opponents. To our men and women serving in Iraq and
Afghanistan, specifically, I regret that your noble service and
sacrifice continues to be required and I want to assure you that more
of us now realize the most effective way to 'support our troops' is to
bring you home, as soon as strategically possible, and with honor."

So, IMO, that's what he should have said. But the fact that he responds
very poorly to political attacks is exactly why he isn't POTUS today,
and probably does not deserve to be in the future.

I'm now off to the corner to beat my head against the wall for getting
sucked into a political thread after avoiding participating in these
things for a long time. Damn hypocritical and less than perfect of you,
Gould.