Kerry Upsets Conservatives Again

A Phil Angelides campaign rally this week featuring U.S. Sen. John Kerry and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is getting conservatives all hot and bothered because Kerry said:

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq."

To right-winger Michelle Malkin, this is evidence that Kerry believes soldiers in Iraq are uneducated and pretty much worthless for nothing but war fodder. KFI-AM's John Ziegler is getting traction from it as well.

Kerry likely was making a point that has been around for decades: the poor and undereducated are sent in disproportionate numbers to die in wars. It didn't help that Kerry sounded like he was making a joke at the expense of soldiers. The Pasadena Star News said the crowd reacted with a mixture of "laughter and gasps," Malkin noted.

UPDATE: This story erupted today when White House spokesman Tony Snow said Kerry owes an apology to soldiers and their families. To which, Kerry responded:

"I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did. I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh. ...  Bottom line, Republicans want to debate straw men because they're afraid to debate real men."

A reader says Kerry is spouting myths about the troops. A Heritage Foundation report found military recruits actually better educated than the general population as a whole. But this comes as the military enlists older men and women, and with more recruits with past criminal records, no high school diplomas and with lower scores on aptitude tests.

(Photo: Ann Johansson / AP)