Kerry, You ******...Follow

Update!



I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative = "I'm sorry you got offended"

Hooray for my powers of prognostication!

Yeah. This was pretty much the impression I got out of all of this. He took a relatively minor statement which could have *easily* been repaired with something simple like: "Gee. I meant to make a joke about Bush. I botched it and it came out sounding like I was bashing the troops. I didn't mean it that way, and I appologize to anyone I may have offended".

But instead he went on a tirade with his "I will appologize to no-one!" bit. Holy "how to make things worse" Batman!

This is also turning into a bigger wedge problem for Democrats then Foley was for Republicans. What we're seeing today is "moderate" Dems calling for Kerry to apologize with the more liberal ones kinda keeping a low profile. But to hear the liberal talking heads (both on Air America and Fox believe it or not), Kerry did nothing wrong and need not apologize for anything.

Somewhere in all of this, the forest has been missed for the trees. It doesn't matter what he meant to say. It's what he *did* say that matters. And many people took offense at the words that came out of his mouth. For him to refuse to apologize is bad. For liberal pundits to circle their wagons around him is creating a disaster.

The mainstream press was basically trying to push it off last night as well. Every one of them spining the story as a mistatement and playing clips about Kerry accusing Republicans of spining this. I think that's a mistake as well. Again. What he meant to say doesn't matter. It's the fact that what he did say offended a great many people. Refusing to apologize to those people is just ridiculous, doubly so coming from a leader of a party that seems to want to make Republicans apologize just for holding different views then Democrats.

I haven't checked the news much today, but this is starting to look like a big deal.

This is also turning into a bigger wedge problem for Democrats then Foley was for Republicans

Beyond ludicrous. The idea that this would cause any lack of turnout for Democratic candidates is just silly. The Foley thing absolutely will keep some values based GOP voters home next week.

What it could do is mitigate some of that by turning out base voters, but honestly, if this is still a story to anyone but Fox News by election day I'll be amazed.

I doubt it. That's not just liberal pollyannaism but, c'mon, you really think that Democrats are going to be more upset about Kerry saying something retarded than Republicans were about Foley sending icky messages to pages? And, yes, "male" pages if you want to go there.

I haven't exactly been canvassing the streets for opinions but the few I've gotten have been more "Wow, that was a stupid thing to say" rather than "There's no way I could vote Democratic now!"

I love America. people.

Edited, Nov 1st 2006 at 3:16pm PST by Kelvyquayo

It's not shut up and agree, it's more shut up and don't disagree.

Commie

I would say that one need only look at the Connecticut race beween Lamont and Lieberman to realize that there is a *massive* split even among traditional Democrats over the specifics of the war and the approach to the issues surrounding it. Kerry just added more fuel to that split.

And that's not even starting on the swing voters who represent a number of voters larger then the margins in a large number of close races. Kerry's first reaction is incredibly telling about his politics, and lacking another "face" for the Dem party, that's the perception many voters are going to hold of the party as a whole.

I'm talking about people who actually win their party's nomination. Hence the "they never get a second chance from their party" comment.

Only Nixon actually won the nomination of his party, lost the election, but then won a future nomination from the same party (and went on to win that election).

I'm not aware of any other president to ever do this. For the most part (as I said earlier), if your party puts you up as their candidate and you lose your bid for the presidency, you never get a second shot. The party considers you a poor choice and looks for someone new the next time.

Interesting factiod though: Reagan did win an electoral Vote in 1976, but he did not win the Republican nomination and did not appear on the ballot.

Do you think the Dems thought *********** we may win this and then we would have to actually try and clean this mess up. What can we do?"

Then they let Kerry give a speech, whooshka, no more problem.

But there the choice was between two different Democrats and which would run. People who are treating the election as a mandate against the administration aren't going to swing Republican over this.The thrust of the Foley situation was not just that Foley was doing what he was doing, it was the spectre of a widespread cover-up among high ranking House officials who "knew" what was going on and brushed it off. Without the stories of "I told so-and-so about this in 2003", the Foley case wouldn't have had the potental impact it did.

I'm speaking in qualifiers since, of course, we don't know if it will have an impact yet or what will happen between today and Tuesday morning.

I think you're misguided to call Kerry the face of the Democratic party. You're welcome to disagree but I think most people just think of him as "failed presidental candidate". If you asked me to say who the "face" was, or at least who the most media-popular names are, I'd throw out H. Clinton, Pelosi and Obama before Kerry. Kerry hasn't even been in the first tier news stories lately until this happened. Maybe I'm wrong though -- I probably read and listen more than the average person so my perception might be distorted. But I certainly don't think this compares as a "wedge issue" to divide Democratic support. It might trim off independants (I doubt it but it might) but I don't see anyone flipping parties over it.

Ah well. We'll find out in five more days.

I know exactly what he meant, which was a lame attempt to knock Bush. However, I wouldn't pass up this opportunity to see Kerry drawn and quartered. God knows that any GOP would have received the same welcome right back.
Alls fair in love and war. But not politics.