October 31, 2006
The Silence Hear 'Round the World
The center-right side of the political blogosphere is buzzing this afternoon over a slur made against the military by Democratic Senator John Kerry while Kerry was stumping for California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides.
Kerry said:
"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."
The remark, a slight against the intelligence of the men and women serving in our nation's military, would doubtlessly have been front page news if uttered by a Republican, but instead, the mainstream media has so far largely given the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts a pass.
Not one story regarding the slur has been posted in major media outlets as reported on Google News as of 1:00 PM, more than 12 hours after Kerry made the comments.
A simple search of Google News For "John Kerry" captured only a handful of reports from conservative blogs, and the single link to anything approaching a major media outlet was post to a Chicago Tribune blog called The Swamp.
As for North Carolina media outlets, neither the Raleigh-based television station Web site WRAL.com nor the McClatchy-owned Raleigh-based newspaper, the News & Observer, deemed the story worth a mention, even though Fort Bragg, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, and Pope Air Force Base are all within their readership/viewership, as are Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and Marine Base Camp Lejune.
It almost makes you wonder if the media might be attempting to cover for one political party over the other.
Doubtlessly, when the media does catch up to the story, they will present it as a feud between the Republicans and Kerry, not the reprehensible belittling of our men and women in uniform that Kerry's offhand remark so clearly was.
Update: WRAL finally posted an online article on the subject as I was writing this, setting up the story in such a way as to pit the White House against Kerry.
I guess they had to wait until they could figure out a way to minimize the damage.
Update: It's rare that they deserve such credit, but I'll always give it when due: AllahPundit reports that CNN ran the video clip of Kerry's comments "a good four or five times within the past hour."
In the wake of running terrorsit propaganda videos as news on the 19th, that this could be seen as CNN's attempt to "Lurch" back towards the middle.
Update: Kerry refuses to apologize. But he supports the troops!
When I got home about 2:30 EST CNNHN was discussing the matter with John McCain via telephone.
When I typed "John Kerry Iraq" into Yahoo! News the theme tends to be one of saying the White House accuses Kerry of insulting the troops instead. Even though Kerry said it, it's just speculation and accusation as if we need to analyze and take it in context - at least according to the MSM. But, when a conservative like Rush says something, it's guilty as charged without a need to review and analyze what he said.
Posted by: bws53 at October 31, 2006 03:50 PMOh, this is ridiculous.
Bush once said that members of al Qaeda were captured, and were no longer a threat.
Maureen Dowd misinterpreted what he said (intentionally or not) and claimed he said AQ was no longer a threat.
People ripped her up and down for that.
And now, when Kerry is zinging Bush, and makes another ambiguous zing at Bush, has an aide explain what he meant to say, and later, in a press conference, says he was zinging Bush, not the troops, people are still trying to insist he was attacking the troops.
Why? Because it's okay when it happens to Kerry, but not when it happens to Bush?
Bush *is* stuck in Iraq (metaphorically speaking), and one can argue that he didn't study the probable results of the war in Iraq, and that's why he's stuck there.
But even if that wasn't true, the aide pointed out that Kerry had intended to say "getting us stuck in Iraq". And that should be the end of the story.
Bright people and dumb people go into the military for some of the same, and some different, reasons.
Some of the same: they believe in what is happening there, they think they can make a difference, they think its their duty, they want to pay back for some of what this country gave them.
Some different: its a way to get training, its a way out of a bad economy, its what their family as always done.
If you go into the military, you almost certainly will get sent to Iraqistan -- regardless of how bright or not you are.
It was not a slur against our military. He was calling the president stupid for getting stuck in Iraq. Read the whole speech, it is as clear as day that he was slamming our idiot president.
Posted by: Mark Stevens at November 2, 2006 04:09 PM
