...of John Kerry. It takes a Brit to point it out:

US servicemen are revered in a way that the British squaddie can only dream of. Soldiers travel in uniform and are routinely ushered to the front of queues and given upgrades to business class with no questions asked. On an American Airlines jet from Dallas last Sunday, a flight attendant made a spontaneous announcement about "the sacrifice our young men and women are making to keep us safe". The whole plane applauded her.

This is not just rah-rah jingoism. The aching reality of war is also apparent. At Houston airport on Wednesday night I pulled up behind a white hearse with two soldiers in dress uniform inside it. "That's one of our boys coming home from Iraq," said a sombre Avis representative, waving me past.

As Kerry has found out, you try to exploit this sentiment for political gain at your peril. The military is the most integrated sector of American society. Poor youths with a bit of get up and go about them use it to get funding for college to pull themselves up a rung on the economic ladder.

I have sat in Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles with black sergeants from Alabama, marines from Mexico and good ol' boy snipers from Kentucky in places like Fallujah and Ramadi as they described their hopes with an affecting optimism that belied the mortal danger they were in. In many ways, they embody what is great about America.

As the articles title declares that "Kerry is not as smart as he thinks" neither is George W. Bush as dumb as many try to portray him. Sure he flubs his English grammar on occasion, but I can't recall ever hearing anyone make fun of JFK (or his little brothers) for pronouncing Cuba as "Cuber". I guess the press finds a New England dialect endearing while a Southern dialect seems to them as being evidence of ignorance. As many times as Dubyas' grammar has failed him he has never made the verbal gaffs that Kerry has made time and time again, the "stuck in Iraq" reference being only the latest. Kerry may correctly pronounce the words he speaks, but he often arranges them in a manner that exposes his pomposity, extreme left wing leanings and his simmering hatred of the military.

Cecil, I don't get here as often as I once did. But as usual, your opinion speaks for both of us.

Kerry lets his real self show from time to time. Even if, as he says, it was a joke aimed at the President, should he say a guy who got better grades than his own is not well educated? Isn't that a shot at himself then?

Kerry was, is and shall be an elitists snob. He and the Misses need to return to Europe, where they'll be appreciated. She'll have to go to Europe, they ran all of her kind out of Mozambique, the ones they didn't kill outright.

In contrast, on the stump this week Bush has shown that whatever his faults – and there are many – that he still has that indispensable political gift of speaking simply to ordinary people rather than talking down to them.

Bush speaks simply like ordinary people. Kerry speaks simply AT ordinary people, thinking that it's the only way they can understand.

then he dissembles for 2 weeks, blaming everyone else for what he said.

Given Kerry's history of denouncing the military, I'm not willing to give him the benefit of doubt about what he claims he meant to say verses what he actually said. The words he actually said were stupid, incorrect, and highly offensive to those of us who've served in the military and especially to those currently serving.

His half-assed "apology" doesn't come close to cutting it, either. It would've been far better if he'd said something like, "I tried to make a joke but it came out all wrong. As a result, I mistakenly insulted millions of military personnel, veterans, and their loved ones. I sincerely apologise from my mistake and ask for forgiveness."

However, Kerry couldn't say those sentences because it would force him to admit that he made a mistake in the words he said and also in his defiance when called on them. Instead, he apologized that his words were "misinterpreted". Once an asshat, always an asshat.

Larry, I especially liked the part where current service folks got to be stupid, then when he backtracked he said we were all just crazy.

That's the kind of stuff that can't be made up, it has to happen for all to hear. He's an idiot.

Kerry claims he was trying to make a joke. Instead, he proved once again that he is a joke, and a bad one at that. I'm so incredibly grateful that pompus, arrogant, inept fool lost the 2004 election.

Agreed Larry, but I am also incredibly appalled at the fact that the "pompous, arrogant, inept fool" got as many votes as he did and further that he was the best that the Democrat party could come up with. And also that the second best they could come up with was that other fool Howard Dean. Not to even mention the rest of the Democratic cream of the crop like Edwards, Clinton, Pelosi, Reid...

The Democrats more resemble a bad movie parody of a political party than the real deal.

I'd say the Brit is pretty tone deaf as well. This is good: "The military is the most integrated sector of American society."
But then the next two sentences prove the authors own bias and stereotypes:
"Poor youths with a bit of get up and go about them use it to get funding for college to pull themselves up a rung on the economic ladder.
I have sat in Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles with black sergeants from Alabama, marines from Mexico and good ol' boy snipers from Kentucky"

Can we get pass this notion that our military is made up of only poor minorities that needs the service as a step up from otherwise miserable life? I obviously did not need the military, but I was denied a slot because of bad eye sight. I have friends denied slots for asthma, who now run their own business. My friends, who did get slots and took their oaths, could leave now and become managers in any company.

I'm not denying that some do use the military to help change their life. The US military will improve their life. But this idea that does are the only people in the military is moronic. Kerry made that mistake, and this author is too.

As a long time Democrat and a leftie who has been "praised" by some commenters here (note the air quotes) as not being a moonbat, just let me say this:

John Kerry is a tin ear, tone deaf doofus.

Fair enough?

I guess that's fine, Bill, not that you're telling us anything we don't know. Are you ashamed that this hairball was the best that your party could manage to cough up two years ago?

Are you dismayed that he still fantasizes that he can be president? And that he may have significantly damaged the chances of your party taking either house this year?

I'd say the Brit is pretty tone deaf as well. This is good: "The military is the most integrated sector of American society."

But then the next two sentences prove the authors own bias and stereotypes:

"Poor youths with a bit of get up and go about them use it to get funding for college to pull themselves up a rung on the economic ladder.
I have sat in Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles with black sergeants from Alabama, marines from Mexico and good ol' boy snipers from Kentucky"

Can we get pass this notion that our military is made up of only poor minorities that needs the service as a step up from otherwise miserable life?

While many have incorrectly characterized the military as being disproprotionately made up of minorities (see John Kerry on the All Volunteer Military, 1972), the fact is that America's different races and ethnic groups make up the military in percentages roughly equivalent to the population at large.

That said, there are many fine people who grew up poor and/or are racial or ethnic minorities in the military. They entered the military for a variety of reasons just the same as everyone else including quite a few who sought better opportunities than might've been available at home. There's certainly nothing wrong with that.

While I was in the military, I lived and worked with people from many different backgrounds. I learned that no one racial or ethnic group cornered the market on a**holes. It's kind of funny. The military tends to be one of the most conservative corners of American life, but it's also the most integrated. Racial problems still happen from time to time, but I firmly believe this happens less often than society at large, even in so-called liberal enclaves like New York or San Francisco.

John Kerry is a tin ear, tone deaf doofus.

Fair enough?

Bill, please don't take it personally when I denounce John Kerry. My comments were in no way directed at you. We can agree on some things and disagree on others. Cool. Politics may be a necessary evil, but to me, it's evil just the same. I try not to let politics dominate my life and severely distrust those who do.

Where is President Ryan when the world needs him?

"marines from Mexico"????

New Mexico Magazine has a column,"One of our 50 is Missing",about people (mostly our fellow Americans)that don't know that New Mexico is a state,not part of Mexico,I'll have to send that to them.

Freddy, you're quite correct, of course, but Mr. Harnden may not have made a mistake.

Not every country's citizens are eligible, but for many service in the U.S. military is a shortcut to American citizenship. Immigrants from south of the border take advantage of that occasionally, so it wouldn't be at all incredible to encounter a genuine Mexican Marine.

Regards,
Ric

"marines from Mexico"????

Yes. Some of my fellow trainees in Army basic training (1975) were Mexicans. When my oldest stepson enlisted in the Army (1989), he was a Filipino citizen with a green card. I've known several people in the military who weren't US citizens. It can be a path to citizenship.

Trust me Bill, I meant it as high praise.