John Kerry: Open mouth, insert foot

[Wildcard Ky]

In an interview with Katie Couric this morning, John Kerry claimed that 53% of American kids don't graduate high school.

This ought to rank right up there with some of his all time classics:

I was in Cambodia during Christmas of 1968 while President Nixon was telling America that we didn't have any troops in Cambodia.

I don't own an SUV

I voted for it before I voted against it

I threw my medals at the whitehouse.

I didn't throw my medals.

Kerry at it again.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I was in Cambodia during Christmas of 1968 while President Nixon was telling America that we didn't have any troops in Cambodia.

I don't get it. What's wrong with this statement? He did say there weren't any troops in Cambodia when in fact there were.

 

[Liar]

I threw my medals at the whitehouse.

I didn't throw my medals.

At least one of them must be accurate.

 

[chris 44]

At least one of them must be accurate.

Fraid not Liar, he missed

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Fraid not Liar, he missed

Hey come on, he said he threw them AT it... not that he HIT it <grin>

 

[BlackShanglan]

I don't get it. What's wrong with this statement? He did say there weren't any troops in Cambodia when in fact there were.

I think, although I'm doing my best to block everything related to that long and pointless election out, that Senator Kerry was allegedly not in Cambodia at the time he claims he was.

 

[Pure]

From the Drudge site: Kerry's 53% claim conflicts with a recent press release from the U.S. Census Bureau: "High School Graduation Rates Reach All-Time High"

And the Census Bureau's own website states: 85.9 Percent Of Americans Aged 20-24 Are High School Graduates. (U.S. Census Bureau Website, www.census.gov , Accessed 2/1/06)

Notice that the Bureau stats regard adults aged 20-24.

Perhaps what Kerry was trying to say is that, for a given age cohort entering, say, gr 9 or 10, 53% will not graduate in a timely manner, but 'drop out.'

Further I think the general point will stand: the Americans at 18, allegedly ready for college/university are, in a majority, not well prepared.
-----

(I have no particular love for Kerry btw, but at least he did his service, unlike Messrs GWBush, Cheney, Libby, Ashcroft, Rove, Wolfowitz, Feith, Lott, Limbaugh, and on and on. Rumsfeld did apparently serve, the only one I know of, at the top Rep'n levels of 'neocons.')



=====

Kerry's Cambodia Whopper

By Joshua Muravchik
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 24, 2004; Page A17

Most of the debate between the former shipmates who swear by John Kerry and the group of other Swift boat veterans who are attacking his military record focuses on matters that few of us have the experience or the moral standing to judge. But one issue, having nothing to do with medals, wounds or bravery under fire, goes to the heart of Kerry's qualifications for the presidency and is therefore something that each of us must consider. That is Kerry's apparently fabricated claim that he fought in Cambodia.

It is an assertion he made first, insofar as the written record reveals, in 1979 in a letter to the Boston Herald. Since then he has repeated it on at least eight occasions during Senate debate or in news interviews, most recently to The Post this year (an interview posted on Kerry's Web site). The most dramatic iteration came on the floor of the Senate in 1986, when he made it the centerpiece of a carefully prepared 20-minute oration against aid to the Nicaraguan contras.


Kerry argued that contra aid could put the United States on the path to deeper involvement despite denials by the Reagan administration of any such intent. Kerry began by reading out similar denials regarding Vietnam from presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Then he offered this devastating riposte:

"I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me."

However seared he was, Kerry's spokesmen now say his memory was faulty. When the Swift boat veterans who oppose Kerry presented statements from his commanders and members of his unit denying that his boat entered Cambodia, none of Kerry's shipmates came forward, as they had on other issues, to corroborate his account. Two weeks ago Kerry's spokesmen began to backtrack. First, one campaign aide explained that Kerry had patrolled the Mekong Delta somewhere "between" Cambodia and Vietnam. But there is no between; there is a border.

Then another spokesman told reporters that Kerry had been "near Cambodia." But the point of Kerry's 1986 speech was that he personally had taken part in a secret and illegal war in a neutral country. That was only true if he was "in Cambodia," as he had often said he was. If he was merely "near," then his deliberate misstatement falsified the entire speech.

Next, the campaign leaked a new version through the medium of historian Douglas Brinkley, author of "Tour of Duty," a laudatory book on Kerry's military service. Last week Brinkley told the London Telegraph that while Kerry had been 50 miles from the border on Christmas, he "went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions." Oddly, though, while Brinkley devotes nearly 100 pages of his book to Kerry's activities that January and February, pinpointing the locations of various battles and often placing Kerry near Cambodia, he nowhere mentions Kerry's crossing into Cambodia, an inconceivable omission if it were true.

Now a new official statement from the campaign undercuts Brinkley. It offers a minimal (thus harder to impeach) claim: that Kerry "on one occasion crossed into Cambodia," on an unspecified date. But at least two of the shipmates who are supporting Kerry's campaign (and one who is not) deny their boat ever crossed the border, and their testimony on this score is corroborated by Kerry's own journal, kept while on duty.

One passage reproduced in Brinkley's book says: "The banks of the [Rach Giang Thanh River] whistled by as we churned out mile after mile at full speed. On my left were occasional open fields that allowed us a clear view into Cambodia. At some points, the border was only fifty yards away and it then would meander out to several hundred or even as much as a thousand yards away, always making one wonder what lay on the other side." His curiosity was never satisfied, because this entry was from Kerry's final mission.

 

[R. Richard]

"I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me."

From Wikipedia: Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974.

 

[randdude]

Obviously he meant college!

C'mon! Give him a break. Haven't you ever mispoke?

We'd certainly all be better off with him as president than the born-again phony we have now, one who'd no doubt love to ban erotica to please his religious right "base".

Go John in 2008!

 

[R. Richard]

My post, in reply to Pure's post was actually an attempt to reply to Dr. M's question.

Kerry's self stated "exploits" have been revealed as lie after lie. If he mis-spoke it was almost everytime he opened his mouth. However, Kerry is a politician and you expect lies from a politician. But the son-of-a-bitch is too stupid to even read a calendar! My suggestion would be that Kerry needs to go back to school, starting in the grade where they teach children how to read a calendar.

 

[BigAndTall]

C'mon! Give him a break. Haven't you ever mispoke?

We'd certainly all be better off with him as president than the born-again phony we have now, one who'd no doubt love to ban erotica to please his religious right "base".

Go John in 2008!

I seriously doubt the party will line up behind John again. I think he was a compromise canadite, and I hope that there are better picks in 2008 than what was in 2004.

 

[zeb1094]

From the Drudge site: Kerry's 53% claim conflicts with a recent press release from the U.S. Census Bureau: "High School Graduation Rates Reach All-Time High"

And the Census Bureau's own website states: 85.9 Percent Of Americans Aged 20-24 Are High School Graduates. (U.S. Census Bureau Website, www.census.gov , Accessed 2/1/06)

Notice that the Bureau stats regard adults aged 20-24.

Perhaps what Kerry was trying to say is that, for a given age cohort entering, say, gr 9 or 10, 53% will not graduate in a timely manner, but 'drop out.'

Further I think the general point will stand: the Americans at 18, allegedly ready for college/university are, in a majority, not well prepared.
-----

(I have no particular love for Kerry btw, but at least he did his service, unlike Messrs GWBush, Cheney, Libby, Ashcroft, Rove, Wolfowitz, Feith, Lott, Limbaugh, and on and on. Rumsfeld did apparently serve, the only one I know of, at the top Rep'n levels of 'neocons.')

Kerry's a fucking poodle! He a liar, not you Liar, and a treasonous asshole!

Yes I feel strongly about him. He a jerk and idiot all wrapped up in an asshole.

Sorry, rant over!

 

[zeb1094]

C'mon! Give him a break. Haven't you ever mispoke?

We'd certainly all be better off with him as president than the born-again phony we have now, one who'd no doubt love to ban erotica to please his religious right "base".

Go John in 2008!

Only if they want to lose!

 

[Colleen Thomas]

C'mon! Give him a break. Haven't you ever mispoke?

We'd certainly all be better off with him as president than the born-again phony we have now, one who'd no doubt love to ban erotica to please his religious right "base".

Go John in 2008!

Ya think?

As far as I can see, his biggest accomplishment is marying rich women who tolerate his political aspirations. I'm not Dubya fan, but if Kerry had presented any kind of acceptable option, he would be in the white house. As many people held their nose and voted for george as put their hand on their bible for divine guidance. He played well to the loyalist base and poorly to everyone else in the US.

 

[BlackShanglan]

That and he ran on a platform of "they're doing everything wrong." Never really a great platform for anyone.

 

[Wildcard Ky]

I don't get it. What's wrong with this statement? He did say there weren't any troops in Cambodia when in fact there were.

Navy records show that he wasn't in Cambodia during Christmas of 1968.

Nixon wasn't inaugurated until late January of 1969, LBJ was still president during Christmas of 1968.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Navy records show that he wasn't in Cambodia during Christmas of 1968.

Nixon wasn't inaugurated until late January of 1969, LBJ was still president during Christmas of 1968.

Oh.

Well, there was a big Cambodian incursion, and I think it was around Christmas, and Nixon lied about it, but I guess that was in 69 or something.

1968 was about the time that Nixon was secretly meeting with the North Vietnamese in Paris and urging them not to make peace with Johnson because he'd give them a better deal if he won the election. He knew that if Johnson arranged any kind of standdown, he (Nixon) wouldn't have a chance, so it served his purpose to have the war continue.

His political ambitions cost us thousands of US soldiers' lives.

And yet Kerry's the son of a bitch?

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Oh.

Well, there was a big Cambodian incursion, and I think it was around Christmas, and Nixon lied about it, but I guess that was in 69 or something.

1968 was about the time that Nixon was secretly meeting with the North Vietnamese in Paris and urging them not to make peace with Johnson because he'd give them a better deal if he won the election. He knew that if Johnson arranged any kind of standdown, he (Nixon) wouldn't have a chance, so it served his purpose to have the war continue.

His political ambitions cost us thousands of US soldiers' lives.

And yet Kerry's the son of a bitch?

Nixxon was a paranoid.
LBJ was a meglomaniac and bully.
JFK was a philandrer.
Carter was incompetant.
Regan was starting to sufer from Alzheimers.
Clinton was a criminal.

Kerry was no better or worse, than any of these men. Kerry, inho, is a lot like fellow who took the Notere dmae coaching job, then lost it three days later when it was discovered he had padded his resume 25 years earlier while trying to land a job. Kerry is a politician who is used to lying. He built his career on a web of lies, about his service, about his activities, about his accomplishments. The p[roblem for him, was that no one cared enough to back check him, and he told the same lies so many times, they became comfortable fall backs. When he stepped onto the big stage, when armies of partisans, bloggers, medica pundits and political adversaries were arrayed to cross check every fact, he found himself falling back to the old reliables. Cept now there were people interested enough to freedom of information act his unit's military record. there were people willing to dig upt his congressional testimony and splash it all over the internet. And like any lie, be it big or small, you almost invariably have to resort to more lies to suport it when challenged.

I suspect john kerry is no wosre than the average joe. It's just that no one cares enough, when Harvey down at Gino's recounts how his brillant hit in the bottom of the ninth won the florida state championship for Cresswell high, back in '52, to go and find out ole Harv was a DNP. Who knows when Harv started telling that story? If it was to impress the chicks, or to have a story to tell when hanging out with his ex jock buddies. He may have told it so many times he has actually come to believe it. I think there is a natural tendancy in everyone to embellish their past at some point in their life. How many people hear a funny story about what happened to a freind of a friend and end up retelling how it happened to their freind? It's just better and more immediate to tell it that way.

99% of us are like ole Harv at Ginos. No one cares enough to go digging through dusty old times stored in musty basements to see if we really did play second base for Cresswell in that big game. But when you step into a presidential race, in such a polarized country, people do care enough to check. And your comfortable old embellishments get splashed across front pages and blogs as horrible lies.

Kerry wasn't ready for that. And like a lot of public figures, he lied to defend the first lie. and when that was so throughly rooted out, dissected and disproven, he eneded up soft pedaling what he had said originally. Which of course was sold as him being decietful, since he then couldn't exoplain the lie to protect the first lie.

I don't like John Kerry. I didn't vote for him. But I have the sneaking suspicion that very few of us would hold up even as well as he did, if our every utterance was checked, back checked, cross checked and subjected to scruitiny for any small error.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Kerry wasn't ready for that. And like a lot of public figures, he lied to defend the first lie. and when that was so throughly rooted out, dissected and disproven, he eneded up soft pedaling what he had said originally. Which of course was sold as him being decietful, since he then couldn't exoplain the lie to protect the first lie.

I don't like John Kerry. I didn't vote for him. But I have the sneaking suspicion that very few of us would hold up even as well as he did, if our every utterance was checked, back checked, cross checked and subjected to scruitiny for any small error.

True. And very well-stated. I think I might stand up to all this, but then, no one would vote for me given that my truth is less interesting than the extravagant lies others would tell.

The real problem with John Kerry is when he was asked questions and simply had no answers. The look on his face during the debates when Bush asked him where the money was going to come from was priceless. It may have single-handedly decided for me that there was nothing to decide save for when to go to the polls.

Q_C

 

[Wildcard Ky]

Oh.

Well, there was a big Cambodian incursion, and I think it was around Christmas, and Nixon lied about it, but I guess that was in 69 or something.

1968 was about the time that Nixon was secretly meeting with the North Vietnamese in Paris and urging them not to make peace with Johnson because he'd give them a better deal if he won the election. He knew that if Johnson arranged any kind of standdown, he (Nixon) wouldn't have a chance, so it served his purpose to have the war continue.

His political ambitions cost us thousands of US soldiers' lives.

And yet Kerry's the son of a bitch?

Kerry is the son of a bitch to me for a whole lot of reasons. I won't bother/bore you with trying to list all of the reasons.

Sometimes you just see that politician that you wouldn't vote for no matter what. Kerry is that politician for me.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Kerry is the son of a bitch to me for a whole lot of reasons. I won't bother/bore you with trying to list all of the reasons.

Sometimes you just see that politician that you wouldn't vote for no matter what. Kerry is that politician for me.

Y'know, the guy was just too drab to even gain an emotional response from me. It was mostly... Well, guess that's it, then hit the button that says Bush next to it.

*shrug*

I don't see much about the guy to get worked up about. Now the insistence that some people have that he would have been a good president, that can get me riled on occasion, but that's those people, not him.

Q_C

 

[BlackShanglan]

I could have respected Kerry for saying that he believed a fetus was not a human life and that he was therefore a strong supporter of abortion rights.

I could have respected him for stating that he respected a fetus as a human being and felt that it therefore had a right to live that needed to be defended.

I can't really respect anyone who claims to respect it as a human life, but also supports the right to kill it. There's no real middle ground on killing people, and Kerry's waffling on the topic convinced me that he knew no truth or ideal beyond what might play well to the largest number of voters.

 

[Stella_Omega]

... and it didn't play well to anyone at all. Not to anyone!

 

[BlackShanglan]

... and it didn't play well to anyone at all. Not to anyone!

Yes. I did enjoy the poetic irony of that.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Yes. I did enjoy the poetic irony of that.

he was such a loose cannon, in a liberal way- like Newt Gingrich was.
These assholes on both side acerbated the partisianship we see now, certainly.