Here’s a juxtaposition for you.
Here’s the Herald’s typical blaring front page today:
Compare with this: 103 American servicemen died in Iraq this month, the worst death figure since January 2005. That included two servicemen from Massachusetts, Marine 2nd Lt. Joshua Booth from Fiskdale and Marine Lance Corporal Edward Garvin of Malden.
Did these two heroes get gigantic headlines on the front page of the Herald? Find out for yourself. (The answer is no; the closest they come to any acknowledgement of our civilian policymakers’ failures in Iraq is this .)
And that’s the problem: The Herald, like so much of our media, cares more about a little domestic food-fight than a bloodbath in Iraq, with our sons, daughters, friends and neighbors right in the middle of it.
And that is shameful.
John Kerry is using this moment as he should: to attract as much attention as possible to Iraq. Don’t look now, but he is beating BushCo about the head and shoulders with this, turning his own gaffe to his advantage. He’s right on the merits; and it’s good politics. Fight on, John. Both barrels.
Trouble is, no one’s focusing on John Kerry’s attacks on Iraq. For example, on channel 5 this morning, they reported what Kerry said, Bush’s attack on what he said, and Kerry’s refusal to apologize. Ignored were any mention of what Kerry meant to say or the bulk of his attacks on the Bush administration. The story ended with encouraging viewers to go to the channel 5 web site to vote in a poll: should Kerry apologize for his comment?
… for Kerry to keep up his attacks. He’ll get through — I predict by the end of today there will be a lot more coverage of his substantive criticisms — as well as the potshots.
CNN is reporting that Kerry is “curtailing” his campaigning.
It is not the time to back down. Bush needs to apologize for his mistakes that have our troops have paid for. And if the media wants to parrot Snow’s lies, then John Kerry is right to stick to his guns.
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Because George Bush wants to change the subject, and it is John Kerry’s job, and Wes Clark’s job and every other Demcrat’s job not to let them get away with it.
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Now is not the time to decide who gets to win the 2008 primary. That can start November 8.
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Now is the time to hit Bush’s weak spot, again and again and again.
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George Bush got us bogged down in Iraq, and he wants to stay there until 2009, and he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and George Bush is bleeding our army and marine corps for no damn reason he can explain.
“George Bush got us bogged down in Iraq”
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Didn’t John Kerry and most of the rest of Congress vote to go to war in Iraq?
However, “when you learn better you do better”. Making a mistake is okay, but once you know the truth you are held to it. I think John Kerry and others in Congress have admitted that they were wrong for voting for the war. I also think that a lot voted for the war with misinformation from misguided leadership.
When thousands of lives are lost and billions of dollars are wasted I think the word mistake is an understatement. And basically everyone in Congress and the White House for that matter has blood on its hands for the Iraq mistake. But rather than voting for real change, you play the politics game by somehow giving John Kerry a pass and George Bush the axe by saying it was misinformation. Didnt Bush hear the same information from the CIA? Didnt Sadam kick out weapons inspectors? Is it not fact that Sadam used WMDs in the past?
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I dont care how much you dont like Bush but the credit for the Iraq mistake goes to everyone that voted to go to war.
not trying to trivialize the country’s misguided decision to wage a war in Irag. I guess I should be asking whose fault is it that lives continue to be loss on a daily basis. Bush is in fact the commander in chief and needs to take responsibility for the progress in the country as well as failures. The Iraq war was a mistake..Bottom Line
…and still are. In order to wage war Bush needed the approval of Congress. Anybody that voted to go to war surely new lives would be lost because war is hell. So again, blame Bush until you’re blue in the face, but don’t let anyone off that voted to go to war.
And what he said is indefensible.
We’re spending on defense and not on education. That’s the reason we have smart bombs and stupid kids.
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Or, as John Kerry would tell the joke, “our troops in Iraq are dummies.”
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Guess it’s all in the delivery.
except that it wasn’t what he intended to say. There’s plenty of evidence that it wasn’t what he intended to say.
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This wasn’t a slip of the tongue, like “I meant it, but it wasn’t wise to say it.” This was his cognitive brain intending to string together one set of sounds, and a different set of sounds coming out of his mouth.
All the more reason to apologize. “I’m sorry, I meant to say ______, not _______. Clearly I would never criticize the troops. I intended to criticize the president, who…”
it was a botched joke.
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Now this is indefensible
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You guys have a lot of nerve with all your spittle-laden bluster about what’s indefensible. Here’s something that’s indefensible: that cretinous miscreant Bush is still occupying the White House.
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Bush has a thyroid condition?
cre‧tin /ˈkritn or, especially Brit., ˈkrɛtn/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[kreet-n or, especially Brit., kret-n] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
noun
1. a person suffering from cretinism.
2. a stupid, obtuse, or mentally defective person.
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Clinical cretinism is, indeed, congenital hypothyroidism, but I’m speaking rather metaphorically, as in the second definition.
I realize many americans are not too bright, and that is why pols run these brazenly manipulative politcal advertisements, but does anyone seriously believe that this will have any effect on the elections?
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On the other hand, this is unfortunately a negative reflection on Kerry, that in spite of his Silver Star, that attacks similar to these can gain traction, even when advanced by draft-dodgers. Perhaps it’s his perceived aloofness.
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Have you notice that Kerry’s Silver Star has become even less relevant than Clinton’s draft-dodging?
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And another thing, Channel 5’s big internet question this morning was “should Kerry apologize?”
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The right wing plays MSM like a violin.
No. No one’s going to vote or not vote for a Dem in a particular race because of some dumb joke that John Kerry, who’s not running for anything this year, screwed up. The only thing this might have any legs for is his own ’08 aspirations.
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I hope Charley’s right about how this will play out, but I have my doubts.