The Insolent Kerry

"Sir, the insolence of wealth will creep out."
Samuel Johnson, as related by John Derbyshire

The picture says it all, really.



But I suppose I should start with the comment that set this firestorm off:

“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.”

Victor Davis Hanson delivered this devastating rejoinder:

Kerry surely must be one of the saddest Democratic liabilities around. Some afterthoughts about his latest gaffe, which is one of those rare glimpses into an entire troubled ideology...

The Democrats should use this occasion to have an autopsy of Kerryism, or this strange new tony liberalism, that has turned noblisse oblige on its head. It used to be that millionaire FDRs and JFKs felt sympathy for those of the lower classes and wished to ensure that the hoi polloi had some shot at the American dream. But today's elite liberals-a Howard Dean, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, George Soros, Ted Turner-love the high life and playact at being leftists simply because they are already insulated from the effects of their own nostrums that always come at someone poorer's expense while providing them some sort of psychological relief from guilt. Poor Harry Truman must be turning over in his grave-from bourbon, cigars, and poker to wind-surfing and L.L. Bean costume of the day says it all.

But, as usual, Jonah Goldberg had the funniest take:

Kerry Can't Apologize [Jonah Goldberg]
If you take Kerry's two statements — the written and unwritten — in their entirety, I really don't think he can apologize at this point. I really do think he could have defused this whole thing, maybe not entirely, by simply saying "I botched the joke and I'm really sorry it sounded like I was diminishing the talent and work of our troops, something I would never do. I take a back seat to no one in my respect for blah blah blah..." But now he's questioned the sanity, the integrity and the manliness of anybody who could have possibly taken him the wrong way. That means, in effect, that he's calling all these servicemen who understandably took offense at the plain meaning of his words, wusses and nutters. That makes Kerry a tool of the first order. And, if he apologizes now, with some Gilda Radneresque "never mind," it will once again reinforce his metaphysical toolishness. The guy thinks he can be president and he thinks he's doing what the "fighting Dem" base wants him to do. The problem is he has basically radiated himself with the isotope Asinine-90 and the only way the rest of his party can protect itself from radition poisoning is to sequester the guy in some lime-pit for 10,000 years until his asininity half-life deterioates to managable levels.
Posted at 9:24 AM

And John and Bill and Argghhh!!! have some more to say as well, here and here. They take it a little more personally, and for good reason.



Tyler's Take

So why all the fuss and bother?

Well, because the real John Kerry showed up. Not in the initial speech; a joke gone bad would be plausible.

It was his later statement (John at Argghhh!!! reproduces Kerry's whole speech here):

"The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and 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."
Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, Oct. 31, 2006

That doesn't quite read like an apology to me, even though that's what the situation demanded. Kerry would have endured a little abuse, but the story would have been over.

Instead, Kerry tried to play the "vast right-wing conspiracy is out to get me" card, relying on the usual suspects to cover for him. He failed; instead, he yet again revealed his true character, and managed to make himself the biggest story of the election season, with less than a week to go. For all Kerry's supposed smarts, he's not too clever.

Since then, Mr. Kerry has made a more sincere apology (two days later), but it doesn't erase what has happened. Because the man who uttered these words is the real John Kerry, the man who would be king was the 2004 Democratic nominee for President of the United States. He deserved to lose; this is confirmation.

See, it's a little hard for us hicks here in flyover country to overcome our prejudices when you so vigorously reinforce them, Mr. Kerry.

You really are a pretentious, obnoxious, blue-blooded New England snob, a personification of the condesending rich Yankee liberal. They can keep you.