What was the "botched" joke Kerry said yesterday that started all this?

[Hamlette]

I've heard his reply and can guess what the criticism was, but what did he actually say?

[spuddonna]

1. What he was supposed to say...

He was supposed to say:"I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."

He actually said: "You know, education -- if you make the most of it, you study hard and 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."

ETA: I found this in the CNN newstory: http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/31/kerry.mccain/index.html

[treestar]

9. An obvious mistake, because nobody gets "stuck in Iraq" only people

who volunteer are there.

[Warpy]

11. Yeah, like the geriatric Vietnam vets who have been called up

Nobody really volunteered for Iraq. They volunteered to fight TERRORISM, and they got sidetracked by oilmen into fighting the one Middle Eastern country that had eradicated terrorism within its borders.

They volunteered to find bin Laden and smash his organization, but got called off the job by a bunch of lying oil barons who were after something quite different.

They volunteered to defend their country and ours and instead got sent to defend somebody else's resources from the people who owned them by greedy oilmen.

They volunteered for a life of service to their country, ready in peace and efficient in war, but got lied into a position as human targets by oilmen who under equipped them and sent them to fight a war of corporate convenience.

Careful how you phrase things. Nobody volunteered for this particular war.

[treestar]

14. Yeah, but in terms of Kerry's comment, the freeps react as if anyone

who does not get an education is forced to go into the military.

[madrchsod]

12. once again the truth is to hard to take for some

if you don`t get an education you will be stuck in iraq... kerry may have fallen into that problem that befalls most of us our age is that he was "confused" while thinking about vietnam and iraq. really much to do about nothing

[Atman]

2. Supposedly he uses the same joke in his talks to students

I don't know the exact wording, but basically the punchline is that those who don't educate themselves GET US STUCK IN IRAQ, a not very thinly veiled reference to George Bush.

BFD.

Next crisis, please.

.

[RobertSeattle]

3. He screwed up a phrase

Yesterday, John Kerry said this in a speech:

"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."

It was a slip of the tongue. He intended it to be a remark critical of Bush:

"...You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."

[emulatorloo]

4. paraphrasing, if you don't educate yourself and study hard,

you'll end up getting stuck in Iraq. The idea of it was that Bush did not educate himself and study Iraq before getting us stuck there.
Anybody with half a brain would understand it.

However, Repug outrage pigs tried say that Kerry was criticizing the troops and calling them dumb. It is total BS, and Kerry called them on it today.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. Yes, all I'm hearing is the media spin. I read the transcript of today's Kerry

remarks and I like what he's doing. What he basically seems to be saying today is this:

"Oh no, I'm not going to play that game any more. If you stick a mike in front of me to try to get me to fan flames of this fake story, I'm going to use your mike and coverage to explain to people once again why they should vote the Republicans out because of their disastrous politics. Stick the mike in front of me some more, and I'll deliver THAT message some more."

I agree with this.

As far as the original remarks, it seemed to be something to the effect that if you didn't get a good education, you might wind up stuck (presumably as a G.I.) in Iraq. In other words, you might wind up with few other good options aside from military service for employment. If I understand it correctly, I don't think it was a particularly opportune choice of phrasing, but I think it's true and I don't personally have a huge problem with it aside from I don't think it was very "strategic."

If I am misunderstanding what his original remarks and context were, I'd appreciate it if someone would elaborate, enlighten, or provide the appropriate linked thread.

On Edit: Clarification already provided above. I still think the wording was unfortunate because it's so EASILY misunderstood and pounced upon the way he said it, but I like the way he's responding now.

[Connie_Corleone]

6. He was making a joke about Bush getting US stuck in Iraq.

He screwed up the joke and now the repugs are twisting what he said. He was NOT talking about the troops.

[leftchick]

13. it is not just the repukes

It is all of the M$M. Kinda like swiftboat part II.

[Coexist]

7. check the two video links on the left.

http://www.cnn.com/

[vireo]

8. Kerry misspoke

Henry Kissinger, OTOH, did not: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2514444

[demigoddess]

10. what he should have said is " if you have a president who didn't study,

didn't read history and didn't learn anything, you end up in a stupid war, like Iraq" Politicians would get much farther if they would say what they mean instead of trying to me diplomatic and hint at what they mean.