CNN Still Bootlickin' for Bush

The Bush-bootlicking US media is presently going bonkers because John Kerry made a joke aimed at Bush that came out wrong. Kerry told the students that if they were able to navigate the education system, they could get comfortable jobs – “If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq,” he said. Kerry 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." So this joke was intended at the president's expense, not the troops.

Josh Marshal puts the incident in perspective:

The funniest thing about this has to be CNN getting goaded into making it a red letter 'Breaking News', 'Developing Story'.

Later Update: It's really a case study in the Republican outrage apparatus, one McCain's in on too now. What does President Bush have to apologize for? Let's see. Taking the country to war on the basis of what he knew were lies? Check. Distorting and lying about WMD intelligence to goad the country into war? Check. Having no plan for what to do in Iraq after Baghdad fell? Check. Lying about how badly things were going in Iraq because he coudln't face the truth and thus letting hundreds or thousands or American military personnel die? Check. Mmmm. Lying to the country about al Qaida being tied to Iraq, resulting in hundreds or thousands of American deaths? Check. Got any more?

Unlike the president, John Kerry is a decorated war hero. His record of service in Vietnam attacked by Bush supporters (and assisted by the US media), Kerry lost the 2004 election. John Kerry's response was strong (you can read it at the very end of an extremely long CNN article about this over-hyped non-story):

"I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed-suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq."

He further expressed disgust with "Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country."

Kerry added that President Bush and Vice President Cheney "owe our troops an apology" because they "misled America into war."

Bush and Cheney "have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it," the senator said.

The Bush record, not John Kerry's speeches, is what the November 7 election in the US is all about.