He did the right thing, best to clarify and apologize for something that didn't come out quite as he might have meant it. Good for him.

I gotta say... It's too little, too late.
After initially refusing to apologize, and then apologizing for "botching the joke." It tells me, he really wasn't too concerned about the people he may have offended.

Kerry is getting too much airtime. It's not about him. I hope you all vote in real life better than you do here.

It is late, I agree, and little too in that it seemed more the result of public pressure than genuine concern. I was thinking he wouldn't apologize at all, so it was more than I expected.

This isn't about Kerry, or what he said. He made it clear that he was referring to Bush and not to the soldiers in Iraq. This is about Republicans having a Democrat to crucify just before election to gain some support. They can throw this all over the news instead of the Foley scandal, it was being used the same way, except someone actually did something wrong in that situation. How do you feed the story? Attack Kerry in your speeches, it will be aired and discussed at great lengths, and that's exactly what's being done, just to keep it in the headlines.

I still don't get it. Now, does Kerry mean: if your a poor student...

a) you will not achieve more than becoming a solider in Iraq?
or
b) you can still be elected the president?

You can become the president but you risk getting stuck in iraq. That's the thing, it's just a cheap shot he was taking at Bush, and in retaliation it's been blown out of proportion and misinterpreted as an attack on the troops.

The media is just voracious in general, uc..which is why that runaway bride story was beat to death..and the John Mark Karr/jon benet thing was too..and a thousand others. A comment made by a very high-profile politician/senator, one that was seen as derogatory to the troops even by his friends and supporters, is news. Kerry was clear about where he was coming from, but it wasn't in anyone's interest I don't think to let it go at that.

I'm not suggesting that the media isn't responsible, just that Republicans are fueling the flames to gain support. It's not "hey love us! we will do this and that for you" it's "hey hate those other guys! they suck! haha!" I guess that's just how it works, but it doesn't make it any less appalling. No one wants you to vote for them, they just want you to vote against their opponents.

I totally agree, I've gotten so many election flyers in the mail that were just about slamming the opponent..so much about the "other guy" you could barely tell who sent them.

Uhh... first of all, this is not an apology.

"I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted..." is not the beginning of an apology for basically saying that our soldiers who are putting their lives on the line are dumb (especially when you yourself ran for president and stated so many times that your opponent tried getting out of service while you engaged in military service.

For all those who believe his words were misinterpreted, I urge you to watch the clip -- as BigLizards points out (http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2006/11/last_word_on_ke.html):
"The opening is a series of three jokes, of which this is the third: but he says it smoothly, not stumbling; he does indeed have a smirk as he says it; and the audience laughs. There is nothing whatsoever to indicate, in even the faintest degree, that he meant to say "you end up getting us stuck in Iraq," referring to that lazy, dumb President Bush (who got at least a good a GPA at Yale and Harvard as did Kerry)."

While you're at it, flashback to 1972 (http://www.shinesforall.com/archives/2006/11/kerry_called_vo.html): "...as he ran for the House, he was less apologetic in his comments about the merits of a volunteer army. He declared in the questionnaire that he opposed the draft but considered a volunteer army "a greater anathema."

"I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown," Kerry wrote. "We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply 'doing its job.'

So not only is this not an isolated incident, but I think it's pretty clear what he thinks about our troops. "Elitist" would be an understatement.

Well said!