I think it obvious that John Kerry was trying to be witty in his California speech, but once again flubbed his script lines as he did so many times when running for office. I think it equally obvious he would not plan to say something demeaning about the troops while helping Democractic candidates running for office, but rather said something that came out different then he intended. But, unfortunately, he unnecessarily became a huge distraction the Republicans seized upon to divert attention from the real voter issue – the Iraq war. He refused to immediately step up to the plate and acknowledge he had misspoken, that he was embarrassed and sorry he had done so and was sincerely apologizing to all concerned for what was said unintentionally.  Instead of doing that for the next too many hours he talked about the Bush administration, the war and insisted he owed no apology. Not very smart politics and it gave the Republicans a golden opportunity to find something other then Iraq to talk about. The longer he failed to just own up to what he had done, explain it and say he was sorry, the worse it was. But if we take a step back and look at this objectively, who cares what Senator Kerry said or didn’t say as far as the issue of who to vote for? He isn’t running for office. He isn’t the spokesperson for the Democratic party. Nor is he a representative of candidates running for office. So the fact he made a mistake and then was too stubborn to just admit it and say he was sorry for the way it came out really is only a reflection on John Kerry and has no other relevance to the candidates running for elections. It must have been a slow news day for the media to seize upon this tempest in a teapot  and make a mountain out of a mole hill the way they did as if what was said was how the Democratic candidates thought as well. What a waste of time. See politcal cartoon by David Horsey in the Seattle PI