It wasn't funny in the first place.....

Kerry’s prepared vs. actual statement
AP

What Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said about Iraq: “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.”

What his spokesperson, Amy Brundage, said Kerry’s prepared text called for him 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.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13018908/)

Are middle-schoolers running for political office these days? Or am I the only one who thinks that the "prepared text" sounds like something one middle-schooler would say to insult another? Yikes.... And how did he apologize?

Earlier in the day, appearing on the radio program “Imus in the Morning,” the Massachusetts senator said he was “sorry about a botched joke” about President Bush. He heaped praise on the troops, adamantly accused Republicans of twisting his words and said it was the commander in chief and his aides who “owe America an apology for this disaster in Iraq.”
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13018908/)

Sorry, but what was there to twist? The words that came out of the man's mouth were so twisted, they needed no spin.

And yes, this even made it into the German news. A subtitle on another article is notable: "Der US-Wahlkampf verkommt zur schlimmsten Schlammschlacht seit Jahrzehnten. Vor allem die Republikaner scheuen vor fiesen Tricks nicht zurück. Die Demokraten schießen sich lieber selbst ins Bein - wie jetzt John Kerry." -(approximate translation) The US election campaign degenerates into the worst mud-wrestling in decades. Most notably, the Republicans don't shy away from nasty tricks. The Democrats prefer to shoot themselves in the leg - like John Kerry now. - Nice picture of the American political system being presented, isn't it?

In complete and total contrast, please read the October 31st post on Matt's blog. (Of course, you can feel free to read his other posts, too, but this one really struck me.) Reading stories like this restores my sense of patriotism. Wouldn't it be nice if this was one of the headlines in the paper, instead of the above?

You can tell I'm working really hard on my paper, right??