Reply #10: Kerry's "joke" was not a joke in that sense

[karynnj]

it was simply a different way to say what he said in 2004 about Bush not planning for the war. The comment went pretty much unnoticed by several CA DUers who were there. The crowd did not react to it as an attempt to get a laugh out of Iraq. This was Kerry, a very serious person far more at ease speaking from his heart trying to be what our idiotic society wants - a snarkier version of himself. Though applauded here on other comments, it was a mistake. The sad thing about that comment was that it is one of the few cases of Kerry not appearing as the calm, intelligent, thoughtful, diplomatic leader with the integrity, compassion and honesty to lead this country. The Republicans had slimed Kerry continuously for 4 years, but they had nothing to use to counter the few that he was a serious man who routinely takes the high road.

It was clearly would have been better to simply speak of it in the sincere, high ground way he did throughout 2004. However, he got the intended text, that was distributed ahead of time, out within hours. The problem was that the echo chamber chose to distort EVEN THE MISSTATEMENT.

Every candidate running has made at least one or more gaffes that if echoed would be the same. The other fact is that the internal polling showed that the emphasis on the joke did not help Bush - it may have hurt him. The people for the Democrats improved beyond what people expected a week and a half before. (there were too many things happening to claim it helped the Democrats by the repeated refrain "stuck in Iraq".)