Senator John Kerry is taking the advice of many Democrats and even those Republicans who weren’t using his gaffe for political purposes and has issued a formal apolology statement:
Sen. John Kerry apologized Wednesday for a “poorly stated joke,” which the Massachusetts senator says was aimed at the president but was widely perceived as a slam on U.S. troops.
“I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended,” he said in a written statement.
“As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: My poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and [was] never intended to refer to any troop,” he said.
In the statement, the four-term senator continued to assert that the GOP was using the gaffe to distract voters from its own shortcomings.
“It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy,” he said. “I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion from the real issues. I will continue to fight for a change of course to provide real security for our country, and a winning strategy for our troops.”
It’ll be harder for the White House and GOP to hammer on the Kerry issue. Indeed, there are some who argue that by making a huge issue of Kerry’s ill-considered and poorly delivered joke the Republicans have helped keep Iraq on the minds of voters at a time when the GOP had purportedly wanted to localize the elections or at least talk about things other than Iraq.
What’ll be interesting to watch: the news media gave great coverage to this controversy. Any editor who didn’t cover it would have been transferred to another position, since it was a valid story. In media terms, this closes the actual controversy. If GOPers keep hammering on Kerry and try to generalize the comments for which he has now apologized to showing that all Democrats look down on the troops (when Kerry has apologized already), it can boomerang in terms of news coverage.
Once again we stress: the story of this election may not be the Republican base not showing up. It may be the fact that polls showed that in past elections the Republicans won because they got a good chunk of independent support and support from Democrats. How has the Kerry firestorm played with the independent voters? If they’re already angry about the war and other matters, will this make them more likely to stay home or to vote? GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE. And what impact did Republican denunciations of Kerry have on the Democratic base? Will they be more likely to stay home or more than ever want to cast their votes?
UPDATE: “Miliblogger” Citizen Smash, who is highly independent, says Kerry’s apology is not acceptable. READ WHY HERE.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.