Welcome to the Farm, all of you friendly visitors from RWNH. Check out ye olde blogge, and visit us again - we are unpredictable, and pretty good.
Everybody else is commenting on Kerry, and our editor wanted something from me, since he is my Senator (although I have never voted for him).
Let me begin by saying that I do not think that Kerry misspoke. I believe he said what he meant, regardless of whether it is what he was scripted to say.
Why do I think that? Because what he said is classic, typical Eastern lefty condescending elitist talk: I hear this kind of thing at every Cambridge cocktail party. It is completely normal talk in the Kerry's circles. And because he is still stuck in 1968.
But, just for the heck of it, let's be generous and give him the benefit of the doubt, and imagine that he made a non-Freudian slip of the tongue.
Say he made a little mistake of wording, but that can be a big mistake for politicians: they are not supposed to ever say what they really think.
And when they make a mistake, regardless of how it occurred, the right thing to do is to say that you goofed.
Everybody makes mistakes in life - mistakes of judgement, impulsivity, recklessness, fecklessness, foolishness, nervousness, over-emotionality, or sheer cussedness. But mistakes stick to a person when:
1. they crystallize something already felt about the person (eg Dukakis and the tank helmet, or Dean's scream).
2. the mistakes are so repetitive that it is clear that they are not anomalous, but personal characteristics (eg Clinton and Monica, or Mark Foley - remember him?).
3. they are mishandled in such a way as to make a smaller goof into a big mistake (eg Clinton and Monica). We recommend self-deprecating humor as the best way to go.
4. it's a key moment, like an election, (or in romance) when every little thing is scrutinized. (eg in a passionate moment with Bill, sighing "Oh, Carl, you're so...manly.")
Kerry's little slip had the misfortune of embodying all of the above.
Image above: Kerry at Yale, where his grades were worse than George Bush's. Believe me - neither of them could get into Yale today.
Image: from AOL news.
(Editor's note: Dr. B emailed me this incomplete draft to look over, but I figured we'd post it due to timeliness. She can complete it at her leisure. I added the images.)
