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every person who favors someone else - which is probably as many as 85-90% of all Democrats see this as a way to eliminate one more threat. They would like to firmly establish this characterization.
I don't think he should list all the blunders of others - and they exist. It has never been his style - he's classier than that and it doesn't win anyway. It reminds me of times where I was calling one of my kids on bad behavior - and they would point to the equally bad behaviour of others. It didn't make them less bad. (Kerry's supporters finding gaffes of others is fair though.) (Remember many of us thought that EE's comments could backfire as they squandered the Edwards' reputation as "nice", this is similar though it would squander something rarer. Who else is conceded by almost everyone on our side as classy?)
We all know that Kerry is not particularly error prone. In fact, the DUers all point to this and to 2 (two - just 2) errors in 2004. One of those wasn't a gaffe - the $87 billion - he had just explained it in detail. Kerry's votes in retrospect were both right - but how do you explain something complicated to a media willing to write thousands of words on the life of Jessica Simpson, but only 25 words or less on an important vote of a Presidential candidate?
Hillary once made a gaffe with a joke that had someone asking of Ghandi if he the man who ran a gas station down the street. Compare that joke to Kerry's. Her was delivered as written and it is offensive. Kerry's -even as given- should NOT have been offensive, as it is not untrue - as intended - the worst you can say was that it was not respectful of the President. The Republicans also tried to spin Hillary's plantation comment.
I assume that Kerry's main response will be to continue what he's been doing all along. He, more than any other politician, has spoken of the war partially from the POV of the soldier. He did this, at great risk, when he spoke about the reality of the two sided sword that the Search and Destroy missions were. They put the soldiers at huge risk and put them into a state where they have to be in fear of what lies behind each door they knock on.
He also explained the perspective of the Iraqis answering that knock. It is easy to see how that leads to anti-American feelings. Only someone who has seen this before and is the sensitive, thoghtful, moral person Kerry is could see BOTH sides so clearly. Of those, few would have the natural eloquence Kerry has to explain this in a way that people can feel it as well as intellectually understand it.
To me, any politician who said they had to consider the political calendar before they could change the direction of the war is genuinely quilty of disrespecting the troops - and that includes many on both sides, but not John Kerry. The best thing that the Senator could do - is what I honestly think is what he is hard wired to do - continue thinking about the troops. This likely means working with others to push any plan that gets us out and re-introducing legislation for veterans.
As to the joke itself, he needs to make a denigate his ability to tell jokes, admit it didn't work - while pointing out that the RW tried to distort it, but that didn't work. Then immediately transition into something real on the soldiers (either the war itself or the fact that the VA budget needs to be fixed.)
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