Was John Kerry Wrong?

I would call what happened with John Kerry an example of Good Joke Bad Joke but the joke wasn't that good to begin with so let's call it Average Joke/Bad Joke.

Here is what John Kerry was supposed to say,

• “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. Just ask President Bush.”

And here is what this moron actually said,

• “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.”

Whoopsie!
A few missing words change that entire sentence.

Trying to win an election by degrading Bush already lost it for the Democrats once.
Now a botched attempt to insult him blew up right in Kerry's elongated face and now the only thing he has a chance of running for in 2008 is the Boston Marathon.

You can't deny how bad his slip-up looks on paper.

But I'm not running for anything and I don't know anyone in Iraq so I can look at what he said outside of the political/emotional lens.

Isn't it fair to say the majority of soldiers are not that bright?
The psychological profile of the typical soldier isn't a portrait of brilliance.


After a little research I found a report from the Heritage Foundation that states recruitment quality has not decreased.

But the Heritage Foundation is a Republican "think-tank," so make of that what you will.

I also found some real world investigative reports outside the world of number crunching and flexible statistics.

Peep this story,

• Seventeen-year-old high school journalist and honor student David McSwane is just what Army recruiters are looking for, but he suspected they might be lowering their standards.
  
  "I wanted to see how far the army would go during a war to get one more soldier," McSwane said.
  So he showed up at a Golden Colorado recruiting office saying he was a dropout.
  
  No problem, the recruiter said — and told McSwane in a phone call he recorded — to create a fake diploma from a non-existent school.
  
  "It can be like Faith Hill Baptist School or something — whatever you choose," the recruiter said.
  
  So McSwane went on-line, got a phony grade transcript and a diploma with the name of the school the recruiter suggested and turned it in.
  
  Then the high school senior told the recruiter:
  
  "I have a problem with drugs. I can't kick the habit — just marijuana."
  
  The recruiter suggested purchasing a detoxification kit.
  
  "The two times I had the guys use it — it's worked both times. We didn't have to worry about anything," the recruiter said.
  

And this story,

• According to statistics obtained by The Associated Press, 3.8 percent of the first-time recruits scored below certain aptitude levels. In previous years, the Army had allowed only 2 percent of its recruits to have low aptitude scores. That limit was increased last year to 4 percent, the maximum allowed by the Defense Department.
  

  About 17 percent of the first-time recruits, or about 13,600, were accepted under waivers for various medical, moral or criminal problems, including misdemeanor arrests or drunk driving. That is a slight increase from last year, the Army said.

  Of those accepted under waivers, more than half were for "moral" reasons, mostly misdemeanor arrests. Thirty-eight percent were for medical reasons and 7 percent were drug and alcohol problems, including those who may have failed a drug test or acknowledged they had used drugs.

Hm...

It is any coincidence that the shitbag soldier that raped the 14-year old girl Iraqi girl and then burned her body and killed her family to cover it up was one of the recruits that was granted a moral waiver?

It doesn't exactly sound like they are pulling many valedictorians out there in Baghdad.

Maybe that's why Kerry actually fought in a war and Bush didn't.

Bush's GPA was higher.