Senator John Kerry once again put his foot squarely in his big mouth when he attempted to crack a joke on Tuesday, Oct. 31.
The Massachusetts senator was speaking at a rally in California on the subject of education.
‘You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq,’ Kerry said.
Kerry said that the ‘joke’ was not directed toward the troops stationed in Iraq, but at the administration of President George W. Bush.
However, the principal concern with the Senator is not with his lack of comedic prowess, but with the unyielding arrogance with which he defended his highly offensive remarks, an arrogance that may cost the Democratic Party seats in the mid-term elections. Democrats have been forced to address Senator Kerry’s poor command of the English language instead of focusing on pertinent policies that might win the party seats.
Is it any wonder that Kerry’s ‘botched joke’ elicited immediate groans from the crowd? In the process of attempting to be funny, Kerry displayed his elitist egotism and proved that he possesses little gray matter.
The censure being directed at Kerry for this tasteless and defectively delivered joke is valid, even if some of the criticism is politically motivated. His statement was taken literally and, in the context in which it was presented, appeared to be aimed at those serving in Iraq.
Instead of hastily apologizing and clarifying his statement, Kerry decided to justify his lame attempt at humor and continued doing what he is most well-known for: prevaricating.
Common sense would mandate that Kerry apologize immediately. Perhaps if he were a smart man he would have convened a press conference to clarify his statement instead of posting a pompous statement on his Web site.
He might have, if he were a smart man, viewed the occasion of a press conference as an opportunity to demonstrate that he is strong enough to apologize when criticized and perhaps could have helped his party in the process.
But since when has John Kerry actually resembled a smart man?
This is the same man that called for providing Iran with nuclear fuel in 2004, according to WorldNetDaily columnist Joseph Farah. Backers of the mullah government in Tehran were linked to Kerry’s campaign contributions during the 2004 presidential elections.
Kerry then insisted that as President he would provide Tehran with the nuclear fuel it wants if the Iranian government pledges to use it for ‘peaceful’ purposes only, according to Farah.
A smart man would not develop relationships with a terrorist government that would like nothing more than to wipe America off the map.
But Kerry is not incredibly bright. He should, as an American-born ‘leader,’ at least have a stronger grasp of English in order to avoid so-called ‘botched’ jokes.
Perhaps someone needs to alert John Kerry that he ought to live out his political career as junior Senator from the state of Massachusetts.
The unbelievable gaffe he made in trying to be glib about the education level of President George W. Bush and the current administration is just one of the latest examples as to why Sen. Kerry should not even bother trying to run for president in 2008.
Reut R. Cohen is a third-year English major. She can be reached at rrcohen@uci.edu.
