If you’re fighting for our country in Iraq, John Kerry has a message for you:
“You’re an uneducated dumbass.”*
Thanks for showing us what you really mean when you say that you ”support our troops,” senator.
You’re all class.
*For those of you who don’t have sound on your computer, Senator Kerry did not actually use these words. The “quote” is my translation of what he said.
Update: Malkin is all over Kerrygate.
John Kerry: The gift that keeps on giving.
October 31st, 2006 at 9:01 am
Oh, Steve! Drop the quotes. Kerry didn’t say that. I don’t much like him, but he did not exactly say that.
October 31st, 2006 at 9:39 am
It’s certainly the equivalent of what he said. And I link to the audio to make it clear that the “quote” is how I interpret his comment.
With respect, I think you’re elevating form over substance.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:21 am
ohhh we all know the armed forces are just as bad as prison….Thank you Steve. maybe some will not think that he meant “dumbass” but he was not smiling on serving in the armed forces. i guess if you didnt get a good education in the 60s and 70s you ended up like him in a vietnam jungle? this guy is such a crawfishing puss. you go on and keep telling it like it is steve.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:30 am
Sometimes criticism of others is a reflection on how you are feeling. Since Kerry married an annoying woman for money, and is “bogged down” in that relationship, he feels like a dumbass too.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:00 am
When was this said and where? I’d be interested to know in what context he made such a thoughtless remark.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:19 am
Never mind. I guessed Malkin was covering it and I was right. What a foolish thing to say.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:34 am
To a campaign event crowd, yesterday, in California, while campaigning for Angelides, the D candidate for governor.
I know, Grover. You want proof because it’s probably just a conservative smear job. you go with some video.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:38 am
Well said by Podhoretz on the Corner. . .
Kerry’s Iraq Remark [John Podhoretz]
This is a worthy reminder of Kerry’s fatal flaw as a politician — not his ideology, really, but his lack of what Daniel Goleman calls “emotional intelligence.” He has no sense of what he sounds like to other people or how his words might grate, especially when he’s trying to be funny or clever — and as a result, he just can’t keep himself from saying self-destructive things.
Posted at 10:30 AM
October 31st, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Well, must admit, Kerry’s comments were a play on the old judge’s admonition, “Either jail or the Army!”
As I’ve said multiple times here, I lived in the Boston area for 10 years, and I can say that Kerry isn’t the brightest bulb on the porch. He’s left no mark on the senate. He’s terrible.
And yes, Joe, his foreign, rich wife is nuts. A senate groupie.
I wish Fred Thomas would run for president.
October 31st, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Malkin’s site has his words as ““You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
Who says this means troops? Sounds to me like he’s talking to Shrub.
October 31st, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Muskrat-
Come now. You know exactly what Kerry meant.
Don’t bother defending him, bro. He’s not worth the effort.
October 31st, 2006 at 12:58 pm
You have to admit, when you read the quote my way, it does make sense. But yeah, that’s not what he meant. He’s got a tin ear.
Ironically, some people think it’s the disproportionate representation of red-state, rural areas and people in the military which might be the key to a Democratic victory next week - they’re the people and ocmmunities most affected by the deaths and injuries. Or maybe not. We’ll see in a week.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Why isn’t this video in an RNC ad, and running in every competitive race across the country? Republicans sometimes just need to shut-up, and make sure these type of comments receive the national attention they deserve.
Send this video to every fence-sitter you know, and ask if the party this man represents belongs in power.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Steve, the use of quotation marks ordinarily does not suggest a paraphrase. Thank you for clarifying.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:29 pm
“Why isn’t this video in an RNC ad, and running in every competitive race across the country? ”
Because the link becomes very attenuated and, ultimately, not that persuasive. Essentially, it would be a guilt-by-association ad based on an association between a local Democratic candidate and a befallen national candidate — these guilt-by-association ads work a lot better when the person is actually in office.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:39 pm
How about everybody who served with valor and distinction say what they think, while the members of the 101st Keyboard Brigade just shut up for a while?
October 31st, 2006 at 3:13 pm
John-
You would normally be correct, but the link certainly provides sufficient context to the “quote.” We’re not dealing with a book or an essay, you know.
Luke-
How about you take your own asinine advice? Kerry’s military service, while admirable, does not immunize him from criticism from those who those who haevn’t served.
October 31st, 2006 at 3:46 pm
(Michelle Malkin)
The National Commander of The American Legion called on Sen. John Kerry to apologize for suggesting that American troops in Iraq are uneducated.
“As a constituent of Senator Kerry’s I am disappointed. As leader of The American Legion, I am outraged,” said National Commander Paul A. Morin. “A generation ago, Sen. Kerry slandered his comrades in Vietnam by saying that they were rapists and murderers. It wasn’t true then and his warped view of today’s heroes isn’t true now.”
While addressing a group of college students at a campaign rally in Pasadena, CA., Monday, Kerry suggested that they receive an education or “if you don’t, you’ll get stuck in Iraq.”
“While The American Legion shares the senator’s appreciation for education, the troops in Iraq represent the most sophisticated, technologically superior military that the world has ever seen,” Morin said. “I think there is a thing or two that they could teach most college professors and campus elitists about the way the world works.
“And while we are on the topic of education, why doesn’t the senator and his comrades in Congress improve the GI Bill so all of today’s military members - reserves and guard included - can achieve the educational aspirations that the senator so highly values?” Morin said. “The senator’s false and outrageous attack was over-the-top and he should apologize now.”
October 31st, 2006 at 3:49 pm
i know the armed forces are full of poor and uneducated young men and women but at least they are willing to work and better themselves. they are willing to risk death so that they may better their education (say what you will about the gi bill, i like it) and rise above their past. they do not want to live off the government teet. it takes balls to join the forces today, not brains. i have nothing but respect for them…kerry was born rich, married rich, and will die rich..he has never had much use of an education.
October 31st, 2006 at 3:54 pm
i guess i should also point out they are fukll of well educated rich people to so that i do not sound like kerry …but then i am just a blogger on a computer not john kerry (he should watch keep his words better)
October 31st, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Contrary to Senator Kerry’s foolish remark that the uneducated end up fighting in Iraq, a remark that reflects liberals ignorant prejudice about the military, military people are better educated than their civilian equivalents, not to mention better trained for their jobs. 94.4% of military members have a high school education or better, compared to 89% of their civilian equivalents (see link below with table of statistics).
http://www.dod.mil/prhome/poprep2002/chapter3/c3_education.htm
Generally, you must have a high school diploma to join the military as an enlisted man. You must have a college degree to become an officer. There are no such requirements for the equivalent jobs in the civilian world. If you have no academic credentials, you are not going to end up in the military. If you are uneducated, you are much more likely to end up as an ignorant civilian supporting Kerry than a grunt in Iraq.
In the Air Force, I met a fair number of sergeants with bachelor’s degrees, some master’s degrees, and even a couple PhDs. I don’t see the same in the civilian blue collar work force.
As an officer, you must earn a master’s degree to win promotion to major, which comes at the 13 year point. That means all the mid-level managers in the officer corps have graduate degrees. The same is hardly true of civilian mid-level managers. In the Air Force, one out of eleven officers, have doctorates or professional degrees (JD, MD, etc).[http://www.afa.org/magazine/may2006/0506structure.pdf, p. 53, USAF Educational Levels] I do not see the same level of education in the civilian world, where only a third of the people have an undergraduate degree. [http://www.time.com/time/covers/20061030/who_we_are/]
All this academic work is aside from the system of professional military education which teaches military members to do their jobs, unlike the civilian system where workers learn their jobs largely by trial and error. The military values education and training and puts its money where its mouth is, maintaining a myriad of programs and institutions to improve yourself. By contrast, the civilian world would rather somebody else paid for training its workforce.
I suppose now that Kerry will tell us that he was for the military before he was against it.
- Steve G.
(Michelle Malkin)
October 31st, 2006 at 4:37 pm
“I know, Grover. You want proof because it’s probably just a conservative smear job.”
Like it would be the first time that ever happened, Al. Yes, I wanted to know the context–not that it would surprise me that Kerry said it. I found it on my own and satisfied myself that the remark was really as stupid and thoughtless as it seemed.
October 31st, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Look at the extremely small percentage of enlisted personnel with a bachelor’s degree.
The point’s been made before: when we choose to wage a massive occupation without initiating a draft, the burden falls disproportionately on the poor and un(der)educated in America.
October 31st, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Donald-
Would you have made that point in the same manner as Kerry did? Or would you agree that Kerry comes off sounding like an elitist as#h#le (which, as we all know, he most certainly is).
October 31st, 2006 at 5:26 pm
“……Kerry comes off sounding like an elitist as#h#le……”
Now, now, we all know that Kerry is a staunch defender of all those persecuted minorities…..unless they happen to be Cubans, Mormons or Asians (especially Vietnamese) since they don’t vote as they should……
October 31st, 2006 at 6:17 pm
John Kerry only said what many Democrats believe. Bill Maher had a panel on his show that made the same claims that people only join the military because they have no other options.
October 31st, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Since when did not having a bachelors degree make someone “poor and un(der)educated”?
I don’t have a degree, and my net worth is, well, in the upper end of the economic scale. Bill Gates and Michael Dell didn’t have a degree when they made their first million. I have relatives without degrees that are on the opposite end of poor.
I’m not saying that a degree is worthless, but it’s up to the individual on what they become, not some paper that says they stayed awake in class for four years. So to say that someone without a degree is “poor and un(der)educated” is ignorant and insulting. Climb down from your ivory tower, and mingle with the real world for a little while. I promise you won’t get dirty.
October 31st, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Almost anyone can get a degree, but as the great Ron White says, “you can’t fix stupid”
October 31st, 2006 at 7:44 pm
Oh, to quote Michelle Malkin from another context, boo freaking hoo. So Kerry slipped up and said one unintentional (if perhaps revealing) bad thing about soliders.
Even if you believe the Iraq war was justified, Bush botched the planning for and execution of that war and the subsequent occupation. (The majority of American casualties have come since the downfall of Saddam and have nothing to do with his overthrow, but have everything to do with our ham-handed occupation.)
Do people really believe that it’s OK to get thousands of Americans killed unnecessarily, and tens of thousands wounded, many permanently maimed, as long as you don’t say bad things about the troops? Bad words are worse than bad deeds? A mild insult is worse than having a limb blown off? Give me a break.
Kerry is right. It’s Bush that owes the troops anapology.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:10 pm
I loathe Kerry as much as the next red-blooded American, but having heard the remarks on the radio, I actually can see that he was speaking about Bush, not the troops. When you speak in public, often things come out stillted and awkward.
Of course, I think for a Senator to call the CIC stupid is despicable also. When are the Dems going to grow up and MoveOn?
October 31st, 2006 at 8:14 pm
hey Muskrat, remind me again how Kerry voted on the October 2002 Iraqi resolution?
One can argue to what degree Bush botched the execution etc (and frankly I think there is plenty of room to criticize Bush.)
We can all agree though that the Dems, many of whom voted for the war, botched the whole “loyal opposition” thing.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Steve -
“Asinine”?
I guess that counts as a mortar round from for the 101 Keyboard Brigade.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:42 pm
Steve:
Nope. Wouldn’t have made the point that way. And his explanation (”I was making a botched joke about Bush”) might be true; after all, for all the media’s talk about “Bushisms,” in truth, Kerry is a terrible speaker when he strays from written or memorized remarks (which gives us soundbites like “I voted against the war before I voted for it,” or whatever). But even if that was his intention, he should apologize for making a comment that could be construed the way the desperate Republicans are construing it.
And Dutch,
I didn’t mean to imply that having a college education is, in and of itself, outcome-determinative for a person’s life. But even a cursory look at the numbers tells us that generally, more education = higher earnings = better quality of life.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:31 am
All I want to know is how, on several blogs I’ve read, including comments posted on my own site, that many liberals and Democrats are DEFENDING Kerry’s comments! I can understand ignoring them, or pushing it off as a joke, or saying his words were mis-construed … but that’s not the issue here. Many of the liberals and Democrats are justifing his statements and saying they would’ve done the same. No apologies needed. I don’t understand such ignorance.
November 1st, 2006 at 5:32 am
I sure wish the likes of Kerry and Dean would just stay in the background and shut up. They’re not doing the Dems any favors.
November 1st, 2006 at 8:29 am
- luke1152 - Okay, I’ll talk then. Almost 9 years in as enlisted army, two combat zones, two merit awards (as opposed to end of tour awards) for service on those deployments, incl. first Gulf War forward deployed with a Cav troop. Best of all, I didn’t write myself up for any of the awards, and I served through the full length of each deployment. Oh wait a minute, I don’t have any “v” devices on those awards, so I’m guessing that while I served with distinction, it wasn’t with valor. Looks like I’m one of the chickenhawk fighting keyboarders too…
November 1st, 2006 at 9:06 am
Just for the record, I voted for Gov. Bill Weld (another wealthy loon) during his senate race against Kerry when I lived near Boston back in the 1990’s. Kerry passed himself off as Irish for years, until the Globe exposed his actual roots. He’s just not very bright.
I was in the air force for 8 years. I don’t have any V devices either, but I have 3 accommodation medals.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:13 am
god, we need a 3rd party!
November 1st, 2006 at 11:15 am
We’ve got ‘em. But they don’t have broad appeal right now.