John Kerry taking dubious page from Howard Dean's book

[richlevy]

I think that %100 of Democrats would agree that the average soldier serving in Iraq is smarter than his or her Commander-in-Chief.

Of course they're in a free fire zone and he's in the Oval Office, but that says more about the stupidity of the average voter than the intelligence of our soldiers.

[Aliantha]

Of course they're in a free fire zone and he's in the Oval Office, but that says more about the stupidity of the average voter than the intelligence of our soldiers.

Exactly!

[Undertoad]

This LA Times Opinion piece explains how the military is smart

During the Vietnam War, the controversial student deferments helped keep most affluent and educated young men out of the military, while those without college opportunities were far more likely to be drafted. Today, the military continues to attract many young men and women from less-affluent families by offering job training and scholarships.

But recent studies of military demographics suggest that today's military is neither uneducated nor poor. Statistically, the enlisted ranks of the military are drawn mainly from neighborhoods that are slightly more affluent than the norm. The very poor are actually underrepresented in the military, relative to the number of very poor people in the population.

That's mainly because the military won't accept the lowest academic achievers. The Army limits recruits without high school degrees to 3 1/2 % of the pool, for instance, while the Marines won't accept recruits without high school degrees. Poverty correlates strongly with high school dropout rates, so these rules significantly limit the access of the very poor to military service.

At the same time, they ensure that enlisted members of the military are more likely than members of the general population to have high school degrees. The same pattern holds for commissioned officers. In 2004, for instance, only 4.2% of officers lacked college degrees, and a whopping 37% held an advanced degree of some sort, compared to only 10% of adults nationwide.

Then, who doesn't serve at all? Upper middle class and elites:

...the percentage of enlisted military personnel from households with more than $60,000 in annual income is close to zero. Military recruiters don't even both to recruit in affluent neighborhoods: They know no one's going to sign up. At elite universities — Harvard, Stanford and Yale, for instance — the percentage of graduates who enter the military is minuscule.

The upper middle class and elites maintain Vietnam-era notions about the military. Why?

[Happy Monkey]

Kerry said pretty much exactly that.

I wish he had responded to the pseudoscandals during the election as well as he has handled this one.

[mrnoodle]

Kerry's been saying the same thing since Vietnam. I don't have the quote handy, but he said in 1972 that, essentially, "a volunteer army would be made mostly of brown people, black people, and the disenfranchised". He thinks very little of the people in the armed forces, and always has, even when he was one. He spent all of his political career apologizing for being in the military, except when he needed the military vote.

He hasn't handled this with any more than C grade political aplomb; he's just lucky enough to have a fanbase who are willing to take any excuse he gives as long as it doesn't damage the effort of Democrats to regain power.

Kerry is a tool, irrespective of the toolishness of any Republican.

[Undertoad]

You understand, they had to go back to 1972 to find something he said that resembled the isolated quote.

[Shawnee123]

I think in 1972 I said something about bollards being unsafe.

[Pangloss62]

I just "heard" Howard Dean on my computer's speakers, which are hooked into my TV. He was on the Jim Lerher News Hour. I was not paying attention, so I didn't realize to whom I was listening. Then I started listening; the guy sounded reasonable, smart, articulate, and intelligent. Damn. Was it really "the scream," or was it the comment about the bumper sticker? I'll take him over Kerry any day.

[Happy Monkey]

What was the bumper sticker comment?

And yes, Dean was the best option by far in the last election.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Howard Dean may have a virtue or two hidden away in there somewhere -- but I doubt "keeping the Republic" numbers among them. I don't trust the man, and the entire senior leadership of the Democratic Party has forfeited my confidence for fifteen years plus, now.

The only senior, nationally known Democrat with any sense at all that I could recognize is Joseph Lieberman.

[Happy Monkey]

Heh, that figures.


On a different note, Dean losing the primary did have a silver lining. He has gone a long way towards fixing what was wrong with Democratic campaign strategy at the national level. Without his 50 state strategy, the chances that the Democrats would take over 30 seats in the House would have been slim to none.

The previous strategy of only funding candidates and local party organizations if chances were good allowed attitudes like UG's to grow unchecked, with the Republicans defining the Democrats in every local election. A vocal Democrat in every race may not always win (or may almost never win in some areas) but they can help attract more Democratic votes for statewide and national races, insert the real Democratic view into the debate, and allow Democrats to take advantage when the Republicans implode as spectacularly as they have this time around.

What I don't understand is not how everyone jump on him for leaving Bush's pronoun out of this joke... but people forgive Bush's every damn sentence?

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

What I don't understand is not how everyone jump on him for leaving Bush's pronoun out of this joke...

Well, it's not Bush's pronoun, it's Kerry's. But according to him (and his fans) it's everybody else's fault for being too dumb to realize he made a mistake he was too dumb not to make.

I don't think that is accurate.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Monkey, the short answer, and the only one I feel like giving, is that the "real Democratic view" isn't worth holding.

The very last Democratic candidate I was wholly in favor of was Lyndon Baines Johnson.

I was in the third grade.

Furthermore, Sen. Kerry has worked very publicly in the interest of America's foes, whomever they be, all his political life. This latest utterance is no aberration, it is the man's core. If any of America's enemies seek at least a bit of comfort, they should apply to Mr. Kerry. What a fuckin' scrub.