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If he just apologized, it would have been spun just like the Durbin apology when Durbin did nothing wrong was. Like Durbin, he would have gotten no credit for the apology and it would have been used as a confirmation that he did what they said - and NO credible parsing of the sentence gets to everybody in the military is dumb. You can't then react with outrage - after apologizing. It makes the apology seem insincere.
He did within the first news cycle on Tuesday afternoon - after Drudge started this Tuesday morning - respond with an angry smack down of the distortion and of Bush's Iraq policy. Kerry, who has been a real advocate of veterans and who is genuine in his concern, let people see his honest reaction. So, the first news cycle did include Kerry's defense and a smackdown of Bush's policy.
The second newscycle was Wednesday. When on Imus, Kerry praised the troops and spoke of what he has done on veteran's issues - which Imus agreed to (though I doubt he has any expertise - but he was someone Kerry knew agreed that he did), he avoided a clear cut apology here - though he did say he regretted messing up the statement - "anyone would , it makes you look stupid". Imus would clearly have liked the apology on his show, but it was complex enough Kerry was better off putting it out clearly in writing. He used Imus to get out his support of veterans and that he was going back to DC and cancelling appearnces so candidates wouldn't be forced to deal with this. Later in the day, he issued a carefully written apology - for the only thing that he could sincerely apologize for - which was that people could have been hurt by the way his comments were interpreted.
There has been so much exaggeration on the time frame, that I actually had to look to the JK threads to verify that I was not wrong. News media speaking of estimates like 96 hours yesterday were simply wrong - there were FEWER than 96 hours since the speech. It also would have been strange if Kerry on Monday night even thought to issue a statement that he mangled a line in that evening's speech. (It would almost sound Monty Pythonish - pointing out a minor misspeaking on a joke at an otherwise successful event. So, the real time line starts in the morning on Tuesday when Drudge first pushed it. Today is Thursday.
I think Kerry is hurt because they found something to misuse - but this was not hard. Kerry's critisim of Bush for the last 2 years has been intense and strong. As the RW consider attacks on the CIC's war policy to be hurting the troops, they had many lines to choose from. The only people they can't extract a line out of context from are those not speaking out. It also seems that handling as he did may have been the best he could do once it started. For the party, it got Murtha speaking of the troops and Iraq on the air to replace endless comments on novels by Webb.
Carville, who I have criticized, was excellent - in concisely focusing it as Kerry botched a joke, Bush botched a war. Had all Democrats reacted by putting things in that perspective, the story would have ended on Tuesday, because the Republicans would have dropped it. Now we likley will hear it for a few days - because it would be a defeat if the Republicans dropped it now.
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