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(CBS) Putting it simply, all Kerry did was show what an idiot he is. It is scary that there was the chance that he could have been President of this country. And, scarier still, that it could still happen. I served in the Marine Corps for 26 years. Saw combat in some of those years starting in Viet Nam. I am not party affiliated in any way, and will always remain so. And, when I see people like Kerry and Clinton, I know why I certainly would never be a Democrat. Not fond of the Republicans per se, but come on! Kerry owes an apology to the men and women serving this country right now, and to those who served in the past. And, he needs to just fade under a rock.


Dear Sir, this is exactly why he didn't win the election that he should have. He suffers from foot in mouth disease, the most incompetent campaign ever ran. Let's not waste any time considering him for 2008. He had his chance and he blew it. I would much rather see Al Gore run, we know he won and it was stolen from him. Kerry should remain in the Senate as the junior senator from Mass.
-- Sandra

I want to get a Kerry for President bumper sticker, so we can all remember what (who) we avoided as a president. Remember his role with the Sandinistas and Contras, where he talked the Congress into cutting funds to the Contras, only to see the Sandinistas get $200 million from the Soviets and then be rebuked by Congress and finding more than before sent to the Contras. Who carries an 8mm camera into combat, so someone else can hold it and take pictures of (Kerry) acting? Kerry's GPA is lower than President Bush's. Kerry & Jane Fonda. This guy is toast. Eat some ketchup, crunch a pickle say: Bye-Bye.


John Kerry cannot explain this away as a joke. And this is not the first time that Kerry has severely belittled the troops in Iraq, not to mention Vietnam. This is just one more example of Democratic feelings for our brave service men and women. Kerry just blew his chances of winning even one primary in 2008. It will be interesting to hear how many Democrats criticize him starting on Wednesday. And perhaps there will be none. And if so, this will drive many conservatives who were going to sit out this election, out to the polls on Tuesday. If a Republican had said this, he would resign. Democrats however do not know the meaning of the word.
-- Jim

Well, if it was not his intention to say what he said, then this is a case of his subconscious speaking freely, which, if you think about it, means he actually spoke the truth, for once. Nothing like looking down on the rest of the world to give you a little more insight into his thought process.
-- Mike

Shame on you Kerry!
-- Debbie

I think he owes all of America an apology for his comments. It doesn't matter at this point what he says he meant by it, but rather how it was perceived is what matters.
-- John

I think it is never a good idea to take one statement made by a person and judge the person's entire character by it. He of course needs to have speechwriters think through his jokes more thoroughly, and then be careful not to ad-lib. However, we would need to look back at his record as a whole to know if he is either pro- or anti-military. One point where he is not far off, though, is that it seems that it is overwhelmingly the working class of young people who are giving their lives in Iraq (though I doubt it is because they "blew off" their educational opportunities).
-- Anonymous

Here is a letter that I wrote to Senator Kerry for his insensitive comments to our troops:
Honorable Kerry, I am a retired US army SSG who took personal offense at your slam of our countries' soldiers who have served or are serving in Iraq. And I quote "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't you get stuck in Iraq." Your insinuation that soldiers who server their country in Iraq are uneducated idiots and can do nothing but server there country in a war zone is absolutely absurd. All this really shows is that although you are an educated man you are a very foolish man and have a lot to learn as a leader. I question your ability to be a leader for our country, and I have been trained as a leader and have led soldiers in combat. I spent 20 ½ years serving my country and deployed to two wars, Gulf war I and II. I was also deployed to Guantanamo Bay Cuba in Jan 2002. I think you are a Liberal low life. I will do my best to I rally as many of my friends as I can to ensure that we do some voting damage to the Democratic Party and vote Republican. I am proud to have served my country and to have had the chance to free Kuwait from the grips of tyrant like Saddam Hussein and to be given the chance to help imprison the terrorist who may have had any part in the terrible atrocity that happened to our country on September 11 2001. I was also given the privilege to go back to Iraq and finish the job that we should have done during the first gulf war as was suggested by General Norman Schwarzkopf. I believe that you might want to take a better look at how you are serving your country as a bad leader. I am glad that I was an absent tee voter who's vote really counted in Florida Pinellas county during the 2000 election. I thank god that I voted against you and for President Bush. Maybe you need to take a better look at your past military service in the Navy and your speeches after you left the war in Vietnam against the troops and reassess your moral standards. You need to do more to become a better leader and lead by example with out opening your mouth. I believe at the very least you owe the Military forces of the United States an apology for your insensitive comments.
-- George

Kerry is totally lacking common sense. We are very lucky he did not become President. His true thoughts came out in this speech. What a loser.
-- Ron

To be honest Kerry's statement has been misinterpreted out of proportions. I seriously believe Americans are missing the whole point here. If I were to go by the media and quote him as he has said it, "you know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." Taking a closer look at the statement and if one would read between the lines here, at no point in time has Kerry made a reference to the US Army! It simply reads, "you get stuck in Iraq." Now, if we are to go by the news flashed across the world about the whole Iraq fiasco and how Bush administration was embarrassed to admit failure in Iraq policy when his own team of advisers were slowly accepting the truth. (Please be informed that even certain key people in the US Army had even spoken out against Rumsfeld and Bush's war on Iraq tactics calling the whole episode as an adventure. Even the British who has been the key ally to US war on Iraq have started to admit the fact that the Iraq war is reaching nowhere and is far from over.) Now its up to the Americans to realize who is really stuck in Iraq. Is it Bush? Or the US Army? Simple, isn't it? He was making an indirect statement at the president of the United States of Free America pointing out that he is an illiterate, foolish commander-in-chief who led his force into nowhere only to have dirt on their face. Kerry's "you" refers to Bush and his entire Administration. I fail to see why the Americans missed the point when surprisingly the not-so-smart Mr. President and Co. understood exactly what Senator Kerry meant.
-- Nihaj

As a Vietnam veteran, I can understand very well the source of Senator Kerry's remarks: it is not the soldier, sailor or airman that makes political or foreign policy, but rather they serve their country as assigned by the politicians in Washington. I also remember very well the studies that concluded that most of us who have served did not come from higher educated or higher class families. Want to do the study yourself? How many veterans are currently serving in Washington politics as Republicans versus how many are Democrats? None of the Executive Branch personnel had the privilege of leaving our country in uniform when they were serving, at least neither our President nor our Secretary of Defense did. Point being: we were proud to serve overseas, but that does not make those who did not serve overseas qualified to make Foreign Policy. Our current government certainly is not qualified to do so, which is the point of Senator Kerry's remarks.
-- John

This is to the believers that say the "died (I think the author meant dyed) in the wool Bush enthusiasts" will spin Kerry's remarks any way that suits their needs. How else are we supposed to interpret it? "Oh Sen. Kerry was just fooling around, he was just trying to point out the ineptitude of the Bush Administration." Right! What if he had said similar remarks about Muslims, African-Americans, Latinos, Women or Gays? Or even better yet, what if he was a Republican? There would outrage in the streets, people would be calling for his resignation, and if he were a Republican, they would be calling for the resignation of the party as a whole. The simple truth is that a not so vast majority of people in this country, Democrats, look for anything negative in all that is Conservative. Meanwhile they sit on their high horse shouting down to the "ignorant" masses about how mighty and enlightened they are. Kerry's remarks are exactly what they sounded like, him be condescending to the very people that fight and die to ensure that he has the right to be an elected idiot. Also, as one of the ones that wound up in Iraq, I would like think the time I spent in college was well worth it.
Jonathan From Woodbridge, VA

What an arrogant jack_ _ _ ! Kerry has let his fame and fortune (as the husband of Mrs. Ketchup) go to his head. Maybe a better choice of words for him would have been: If you go to college and don't do so well, and then you go into the military and can't handle it, then maybe, just maybe you will find yourself looking for a rich wife....stuck in ketchup. What an arrogant loser! I applaud the wonderful men and women in our armed services! They are courageous, brave, strong, and way more intelligent than Kerry could ever be........he's a joke. And for all of the other people trying to defend his remarks saying that, "oh, he meant it toward Bush!" ....wake up and get real.....he says how he feels about Bush everyday, but he sure didn't mention Bush at all it that statement...he said what he said, and he meant it (without apology) because he is a piece of trash.
-- Scott in Arizona

I think that politicians can and do work together. Bipartisanship is where it's at. In 2004 Bush and Kerry worked together to hoodwink the American public and allow the presidential election to be stolen without the kind of resistance and recounting we saw after 2000 election. The neocons needed a phony candidate to bow graciously and say "Hey, you won far and square," so as not to draw too much suspicion or attention to the Diebold Election Systems used in nearly half the state of Ohio. I mean really, they're related, went to the same college, members of the same secret society, etc. Now, here again, they're using the same reliable source to offend the voters away from the soldier hating "soft on terrorist" democrats in the midterm elections to bring the numbers closer together and let the Diebold machines do the rest. There is even room for play here too, should the democrats do take the house and the senate next week, in the spirit of bipartisanship (read tag team match) they still may wrestle the American people to the ground with some dirty tricks. Now that the republican neocons have passed all manner of draconian laws and Bush has wrested control of the National Guard from the Governors of all fifty states, all that is left is now is to disarm the American public. What do democrats do? They like to ban guns. That is bipartisanship, where the two parties work so closely together one can hardly tell them apart. So, what do I think of John Kerry's comments? Transparent.
-- Chrispin

I think that this entire segment dedicated to the views of ignorant Americans is appalling. It shows that people are unable to think for themselves, they only listen to what the right wing media has to say about an issue. Kerry, was not trying to be offensive to the American troops he was trying to offend a idiot (George Bush). It amazes, me, that with all the stupid things that Bush has said over the last six years that there are not a thousand "What do you think of Pres. George Bush's Remarks?" columns dedicated to him. Americans need to wake up and look for the truth, because our media obviously will not report it. Finally, it is also time that American look past all the dirty and cheap tricks politicans use and look at the real issues such as: Why has the Iraq mission failed so badly, and more importantly where is Osama bin laden (the man that stared the whole mess on 9/11)? Wake up America!
-- Mike From Colorado

The basic idea behind Kerry's remarks (that educated but unintelligent people like Bush and Cheney got us stuck in this horrible war) is right on the money. Of course the Republicans are going to have plenty of fun with yet another mis-speak by Kerry. Too bad he didn't get the joke right, but I hope he keeps fighting just as hard as he's doing and doesn't back down an inch. Moreover, I think the Democrats should stand with him and say loud and long that these Republican dummies who got us into this war need to pay and pay dearly next Tuesday.
-- Rock

Desperately grasping for straws, Bush and his cronies are quick to commit a common fallacy -- Kerry did not say every soldier in Iraq was uneducated. He said if you do not get an education, entering 'this man's army' might be one of the few options left. Who can deny that our society is structured in such a way as to ensure that there will always be laborers and soldiers to serve the more privileged? And Bush demands an apology from Kerry? Where is Bush's apology for killing 3,000 Americans and countless Iraqis in a worthless, deadly, fool's errand.
-- Anonymous

Bad judgment, followed by bad cover up. The facts are that the poor and uneducated do not make up
the majority of our service personnel. The education level is above the national average also African Americans
are not over represented in the armed services. Dems have leveraged these rumors for years.
-- Mike

I agree with every word Kerry said. He should have been more careful reading the text before he delivered it. Though it was poorly timed, it was true. Those fools reading insults and innuendo into that statement can't read. What did Kerry say? Doesn't anyone remember Vietnam and how the draft was manipulated to suck in the poor minorities? Does anyone remember how Martin Luther King and other minority organizations rallied against the Vietnam War? Someone tell me how many college grads (outside of West Point) have volunteered to go to Iraq? Someone give me the stats on the education level of military volunteers going to Iraq! Don't tell me that flunking out, or dropping out of high school and joining the Army makes you a hero! Bullsh-t! I am sick of all of these made-up phony heroes I read about in the local papers. Headline: Poor Little Jeremy So-And-So from Littletown Wisconsin Got Blown Away By Another One Of Those Nasty IEDs Trouble is, Jeremy shouldn't have been there in the first place, right? I feel sorry for those poor young guys from small towns or big cities getting knocked off. It's not their fault. They weren't protected or taught enough. Their motivations for God and Country were totally righteous, but who can justify a 19-year-old kid getting blown away for God and Country? I am sick of everyone classifying any military volunteer as a hero. This is iconoclasm B.S. What about those great guys who raped a 14-year-old girl and then killed her family? Now for Jeremy and the rest of you War Dead, you are heroes. You were brave, it wasn't your fault. Now it's time to get the hell out and let those secular zealots have it out. Kill each other! We don't care! More food for us! We got enough oil over here.
-- Thomas

I think it's a shame that people have to interpret Sen. Kerrys' remarks for us, he said what he said. Sen. Kerry may have been elected Senator by the people of Massachusetts, but as a US Senator he is heard by people around the world. Our troops, our allies and our enemies heard him, his constituents heard him, I heard him, you heard him. He could have been heard talking of plans, ideas, or solutions the Democrats have to offer, but once again all I heard was the same old dribble, because they have none.
-- Chris

It's typical of the desperation of the Republicans to misconstrue a joke that was intended for the president. They have nothing else to talk about like health care, Iraq, corruption, war profiteering, Katrina . . . the list goes on. I also find it even more interesting that the Kerry critics never mentioned Bush's famous skit about the WMD. Remember, to the press core? "Where's the the WMD's" as he jokingly looked under his chair and furniture while the audience laughed. It was an absolute disgrace to the fighting forces. I guess you all forgot what the administration gave as the reason to go to war. And now, almost 3,000 military deaths and countless civilian deaths later, I'm sure the the men and women in uniform are really appreciative. Senator Kerry spilled his blood for this country while Bush, Cheney, Rove et.el. dodged the draft. The true "cut and runners."
-- Steven

Kerry's remarks make perfect sense and are appropriate. The GOP, especially Bush, will make every effort to smear anything and try to make it look like "morals" -- from an immoral, illegal war, from an immoral, illegal "president", one who has killed and maimed so many hundreds of people -- Kerry is perfectly appropriate discouraging more of our sons and daughters from going to this mire in Bush-corporate-oil's name…. Have you all already forgotten the crimes we have committed in Falujah, the tortures we have participated in, and the excesses of Halliburton? Wake up, America! The worst of it is that Kerry and the democrats didn't and haven't had enough balls to stand up to the rape of this country's real moral values in the last two so-called elections.
-- Ray

Unfortunately Kerry is out of touch with reality.If you don't confront evil, evil will confront you. It is important to realize, freedom is something that we have to take a stand for, everyday. I shutter at the reality of having Kerry as a Commander in Chief. I guess he would say " I'm really mad, now stop that". Thanks for sharing the emails, and embracing truth.
-- Joe

The manufactured "controversy" over Kerry's remarks is surely a sign of how desperate the Republicans are to distract the American public from their utter, deadly incompetence. In context, Senator Kerry's words were a blatantly obvjous jab at President Bush and his closest advisers, not the brave men and women of our armed forces. Kerry clearly meant "if you don't make an effort to be smart, you get the nation needlessly bogged down in an endless, pointless war in Iraq, just like the President has." Mr. Bush and every other Republican politician who is screaming bloody murder over Kerry's remarks knows that this is the case, and so does anyone else who has spent more than five seconds of thought on it. Use your brains, my fellow Americans! Don't let the willfully dishonest Republicans treat us like a bunch of idiots in a pathetic effort to keep us from wrenching power from their undeserving grasps.
-- Joe From New Jersey

All of this GOP "outrage" would seem less manufactured if they had spoken out about the way the administration has short-changed the troops starting with sending them into Iraq without the proper equipment. They've closed VA hospitals, increased medical co-pays for veterans and tried to underfund research and treatment for war-inflicted brain injuries. Our troops lack real leadership at the highest level, endure multiple tours to Iraq and come home to have their mental health needs ignored. This jingoistic rush to advocate for our troops in light of Kerry's remarks should be seen as the crass and insincere opportunism that it is. It's about time they are called on it.
-- Jackie

Bush should apologize to the entire nation for these two statements: "Mission accomplished." "You're doin' a heck of a job, Brownie."
-- Jim From Spartanburg, S.C.

First he said it, then he didn't. The flip flop continues. Way to support the troops John boy.
-- Anonymous

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