Pro vs. Con: Were John Kerry’s comment reprehensible?
Kerry’s words were taken out of context

By Chase Miller
Collegian Staff
November 8, 2006

In the toxic world of media sound bytes, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has cracked open a veritable drum of arsenic. He went into territory that no one would dare to so close to the midterm elections – he had the bullocks to criticize the military. Unlike others, he did not go after Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice or Colin Powell. Instead, he made comments about our fighting heroes.

Or maybe he wasn’t talking about the troops. Maybe he was just trying to further lampoon our disgraced, self-proclaimed “Decider,” a 2.35 GPA student at Yale and notorious mispronunciater? Maybe he was going after Bush. Before we lay blame on Kerry, we should first try to understand the context of his comments.

For all those who couldn’t find the clip on YouTube, read about it in The New York Times or see round-the-clock coverage of it on FOX News, Kerry’s exact words were, “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.” Cue Republican backlash and indignation. Finally, they have some ammunition to fire back at Democrats after it was open season on Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley and Dennis Hastert. Plus, using Kerry’s words is far more damaging than the old switcheroo the GOP attempted when it came to defending Foley.

Republicans should stop reloading their mudslingers, though, because Kerry’s credibility when it comes to military matters is bonafide. Bush, on the other hand, still can’t explain the six-month hiatus he had in America during his service while others died overseas. The closest he ever came to donning the uniform in a combat situation was when he was standing under a banner reading “Mission Accomplished” on an aircraft carrier in his mockingly fabricated paratrooper garb. While a uniformed Bush was touring around college frats trying to impress debutants, Kerry was earning two Purple Hearts in his. That’s why I believe Kerry when he says that his comments were a botched joke, an attempt to make light of the president’s intelligence (or lack thereof), and how it landed us in my generation’s own Vietnam. Although I strongly condemn Kerry’s complete bumbling delivery in this situation, I believe that he merely left a word out, and his chances of winning in ’08 fell through the gap in his sentence.

That word is “us,” although White House Press Secretary Tony Snow can’t seem to find a place for it in Kerry’s statement. For us non-spinsters, though, Kerry’s comments might read like this with that little adjunct: if you get a good education, “you don’t get [us] stuck in Iraq.” Now, that makes sense. Too bad Kerry has the comedic delivery of a jar of mayonnaise. At least he found a spine, which he seemed to have misplaced during the ’04 elections, and didn’t backpedal, saying, “I apologize to no one,” only later expressing his regret that his words were misinterpreted, but not wrong.

So are Kerry’s comments reprehensible? Not when compared to the lows some members of the GOP have hit. Like Bush’s speech at another ostentatious Republican dinner party where he showed pictures of him looking under his desk in the Oval Office saying, “Those weapons of mass destruction gotta be somewhere.” Whoa, zinger! You’re killin’ us, Georgie, along with thousands of other innocent people in a pointless war. Now tell me, what’s really reprehensible here?

millerc10@lasalle.edu