Wednesday, November 01, 2006

2 Sound Clips, 10 Seconds, and 8 Million Comments

Last night, I was thinking about the John Kerry remark about people who don't finish college being stuck in Iraq, and that 10 second soundbite made me think back to the Fox Flap from the week before about what Rush Limbaugh said about Michael J. Fox's appearance in ads for Democrat candidates who favor embryonic stem cell research.

For those who haven't been paying attention, Kerry said this in a speech at Pasadena City College in California on Monday:

"Education -- if you make the most of it and 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."

Since then, Kerry has tried to say it was a "botched joke" about President Bush. But how can any part of that quote be taken to mean President Bush? Some liberals have tried to say that there were several jokes about President Bush before this statement, but there's no way to read "get an education or you'll be stuck in Iraq" to mean President Bush.

The debate about what Kerry said gave me deja vu to 2004 when Kerry's words from 30 years before kept coming back to haunt him. But mostly, it got me thinking about the rabid response of leftwingers to Rush Limbaugh saying that Michael J. Fox looked like he hadn't taken his meds and that he is "after all, an actor."

The day after Limbaugh spent 4 hours discussing embryonic stem cell research, the ads in question, Parkinson's, adult stem cell research, and other related subjects, the moonbat blogosphere was nuts with arguments against Limbaugh, including that he was "making fun of" Fox. It was amazing to watch the discussion morph from embryonic stem cell research to Rush Limbaugh getting caught with Viagra going to another country. And the arguments made about that much sense.

Now we have John Kerry smearing the American military. Instead of simply issuing a statement along the lines of "It was a poorly worded joke that was in bad taste and I apologize for it," we are treated to the spectacle of Democrats and their moonbat supporters trying to parse Kerry's remark into something else. There's not even any context for the statement that makes it look better, especially in light of statements from other Democrats about the military being the only option for the poor and unemployed.

The moral to this story, I guess, is that if you're a liberal, smearing the American military is normal. But don't you dare suggest an actor would try to look worse to persuade people to support embryonic stem cell research!