Clearing the Air on John Kerry's Statement

The election is over. Phil Angeledes lost his bid to be governor of California. Several Democrats won their bids to be members of Congress. In some ways, the nation will be better for that; in other ways perhaps not.

The biggest loser in the pre-election chaos was not even running for office: Senator John Kerry. He made a statement that got everybody talking. It came during a campaign rally for California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides. Because of the statement, the fine things that Kerry had to say about Angelides as a potential governer were not in the media reports.

Kerry claims that his statement was misinterpreted by his critics. Under pressure, Kerry stated he is sorry that some may have not understood that he was really criticizing President Bush and not our troops in Iraq.

One of my close friends supported Kerry's position, saying that Bush and his cronies intentially ignored Kerry's first comment, and used the mis-statement to inflame the opposition.

Since I was not there, and did not know for certain, I found a video of the speech on Kerry's web site. I watched the video to determine exactly what was said.

Kerry opened his speech at Pasadena City College with some one-liners. He said that Bush had lived in Texas but now "lives in a state of denial, a state of deception." Kerry went on to say that he was glad to be here [in California]. He then said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

There it is, the joke about President Bush, followed by compliment to the audience, and then the statement about education. Nothing really links the two jokes, except the emotional responses of Kerry's defenders. Some have pointed out that Kerry did not follow the exact written text of the speech, which contained words to the effect, "...if you don't, you get us stuck in Iraq," which would certainly have been a criticism of the president.

I firmly believe that criticism of President Bush was the intent of the two jokes. But that is not what Kerry said. I also believe that Kerry's slip was a Freudian one. Kerry's past statements and actions demonstrate his profound dislike of war and anyone who participates in it. He also dismisses those who disagree with him, calling them liars, and treating them as his intellectual and social inferiors.

A double standard prevails when it comes to botched jokes in political discourse. If a person inadvertantly makes a statement that denigrates another person's race, religion, or ethnicity, his apology is never accepted. The argument is that the slip of the tongue unmasks the speaker's "true inner self." Therefore, speaker is a bigot, never to be trusted again. But when John Kerry makes a similar gaffe, it should be overlooked, or at least forgiven, primarily I guess, because all of us smart people should know how stupid and evil Bush is, and how brilliant and honorable John Kerry is.

I'm sorry guys, I don't buy it--you cannot have it both ways. The true inner self was unmasked.