What John Kerry Meant

This is the title of an article by David Strom today. He continues with the distortion of what John Kerry meant. He also very clearly explains why this mistatement (that Republicans then distorted) is a good thing for Republicans.

To oversimplify a bit, the storyline of this campaign season has been dominated by the general discontent with the way that Republicans have been running the government. Spending has gotten out of control, the war is unpopular and getting more so, and few people are enthusiastic about Bush’s leadership right now. Add in the Foley scandal and mistakes by some candidates, and you have a recipe for a bad election year for Republicans.

John Kerry’s comments—at least for the moment—have served as a stark reminder to many swing voters of why they have tended to pull the lever for Republicans in recent years: the cultural elitism of the Democratic Party.

By cultural elitism, Strom means the way that Kerry looks down on soldiers he chose to serve with back during the Vietnam War. Kerry has constantly praised our troops, but this commant outweighs all of that praise.

More to the point, John Kerry has fought for the troops to have better benefits and he's fought for Veterans. And the Republicans, by and large, have opposed these efforts. Republicans are keen on supporting military contractors, but less interested in supporting the people that actually wear the uniform.

While we are on this subject, I will point you to an article provided by Random Goblin before he got his website, that I published here, on supporting the troops for real.