Kerry's joke and Occam's Razor

I have no real interest in the latest artificial right-wing bruhaha over John Kerry's misfired joke simply because the whole "outrage" is so meaninglessly fake. It's meaningless because Kerry isn't running for re-election this year; the worst you could really say is "former Presidential candidate has incident of foot-in-mouth disease."

And it's fake because, as writer Peter David summarizes,

...let's see what makes more sense: The notion that Kerry, who served in the armed forces, would be dissing the troops, or that Kerry, who despises Bush and Co., would be dissing the administration.

Like, duh.

But the "outrage" from the Republicans is hardly surprising -- after all, a drowning GOP will understandably latch on to anything to save their political skins. And for a group that has no qualms about insulting amputated Marines and mocking handicapped celebrities won't even blink at this. Shameless dishonesty is all they have left.

(And really, isn't it the height of irony for George W. Bush and his supporters to attack John Kerry for a moment of mushmouth? Especially since George himself is reknown for vivisecting the English language at every opportunity?)

Finally, in the interest of fighting ignorance, here's the text of the (mangled) joke that Kerry wanted to deliver:

"I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."

Tempest in a teapot, kids. But there's one week left until the election...