The CPUSA has endorsed the Democrats. And the libertarians are supposed to? Really? You’d have to have a real bad case of cognitive dissonance.

No matter how atrocious they’ve been on so many issues. Just to wipe the smile off of Chris Matthews’ face. And of course, there’s hardly an issue on which I disagree with the Republicans on which the Dems wouldn’t be much worse.

Austin Bay has written what I’d like to hope is John Kerry’s political epitaph:

John Kerry

Grassfire.org says that we should apply the “Pelosi Standard” to Kerry’s apology:

…of John Kerry. It takes a Brit to point it out:

US servicemen are revered in a way that the British squaddie can only dream of. Soldiers travel in uniform and are routinely ushered to the front of queues and given upgrades to business class with no questions asked. On an American Airlines jet from Dallas last Sunday, a flight attendant made a spontaneous announcement about “the sacrifice our young men and women are making to keep us safe”. The whole plane applauded her.

This is not just rah-rah jingoism. The aching reality of war is also apparent. At Houston airport on Wednesday night I pulled up behind a white hearse with two soldiers in dress uniform inside it. “That’s one of our boys coming home from Iraq,” said a sombre Avis representative, waving me past.

As Kerry has found out, you try to exploit this sentiment for political gain at your peril. The military is the most integrated sector of American society. Poor youths with a bit of get up and go about them use it to get funding for college to pull themselves up a rung on the economic ladder.

I have sat in Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles with black sergeants from Alabama, marines from Mexico and good ol’ boy snipers from Kentucky in places like Fallujah and Ramadi as they described their hopes with an affecting optimism that belied the mortal danger they were in. In many ways, they embody what is great about America.

He was probably just speaking from his own experience. After all, he didn’t study that much, had lousy grades in school, and ended up in a hot-fire zone in Vietnam. He just figured that’s the way it was for everyone.

He was probably just speaking from his own experience. After all, he didn’t study that much, had lousy grades in school, and ended up in a hot-fire zone in Vietnam. He just figured that’s the way it was for everyone.

He was probably just speaking from his own experience. After all, he didn’t study that much, had lousy grades in school, and ended up in a hot-fire zone in Vietnam. He just figured that’s the way it was for everyone.

Though I’m not a conservative, I have to agree with this NRO editorial:

Conservatives have had plenty of cause to complain that

There are probably more loathsome human beings, but it’s hard to imagine one that came as close to becoming president as Senator John Kerry.

And you know, this insulting-the-troops thing has to be driving him nuts, because he probably was taking a slam at Bush, but it backfired. A smart politician would apologize, and say that he didn’t intend any insult to the troops themselves, but Kerry’s not a smart politician. I don’t think that going on the offensive (and I mean that in more than one way, with his comment about Tony Snow and Rush Limbaugh) is going to play well with the independent and moderates, regardless of how much it gives orgasms to the net roots. In particular, when he talks about how he’s always supported the troops, it just provides another opportunity for his opponents to remind people of the 1972 Senate testimony, in which he accused them of being war criminals.

And if this story develops legs like a centipede, and extends for another week into the election, and the Dems don’t do as well as they are currently drooling for, guess who will get the blame? Not that he ever had a prayer, but that will be the end of any hope, even on his own part, that he will get the Dem nomination again.

[Update a few minutes later]

Kerry obviously never learned the first lesson of holes (i.e., when in one, stop digging). Now he’s insulted the troops again:

I am a retired US Navy Senior Chief who spent 21 years serving in the nuclear navy. I read Kerry’s statement and took it as an insult. I just heard his press conference and now take offense that he thinks I’m “crazy” because I was insulted by his remarks last night.

As others have said, like Howard Dean, he’s a gift to Republicans that just keeps on giving.

You have to wonder just how powerful Rove’s mind-control beams are to get them to behave this way.

[Update]

For those wondering what this is about, here’s the video on youtube.com. And as one commenter pointed out, if he meant to insult Bush, that’s kind of ironic, considering that the president has a degree from Yale and an MBA from Harvard, with better grades than Kerry got.

[Update about 4:37 PM EST]

Bush is going to make a speech shortly that had been previously planned, but he will now take the opportunity to respond to Kerry’s remarks. Time to put on some popcorn.

[Update a little before 6 Eastern]

Austin Bay has further thoughts:

I