At this rate, there won’t be any Democratic challengers left by the 2008 election. Give them enough rope to hang themselves and they will.
Back in November 2006, John Kerry was the first to destroy his Presidential plans, by botching a supposed joke about those serving in Iraq. “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."
Of course the ensuing tumult resulted in one of the funniest responses and a classic photo that will be forever remembered.
These politicians get into the most trouble when they shoot off their mouth without checking public opinion polls or handlers first, then find themselves in hot water. If Kerry had remotely been interested in facts (which he never has been), the Heritage Foundation found that, “The high school graduation rate among recruits is higher than it is among the national youth population. While the active-duty enlisted ranks have fewer college graduates than the comparable civilian population, DOD annual updates on population representation indicate that many who join the military are taking advantage of educational opportunities while serving and that many others continue their education after completing their enlistment period.” The best part of all of this is that John Kerry is no longer running for president of the United States. Knock one off the list.
Next on the Democratic long list of presidential wannabes is Senator Joe Biden from Delaware. Biden also seems to forget to think before opening his mouth. While commenting about Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and his bid for the presidency, Biden said, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."
While it is obvious what he meant, by using the word “clean” Biden effectively destroyed any chance he had to be nominated by his party. The best part of all of this is that Obama is not letting him off the hook either but focused on the “articulate” part of the comment. The statement put out by his office responded saying, "I didn't take Senator Biden's comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate. African-American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate."
It also seems that Joe Biden is good at shoving his foot down his throat. In June 2006, C-SPAN caught him speaking to an Indian-American man, saying: "In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking." That went over really well too. I think we can knock him off the Dems list as well.
Moving right along we find Barack Obama. Besides the fact that he will not clarify the questions regarding his Muslim education in Indonesia, is the Kerry-like statement he made this week. “We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged and to which we have now spent $400 billion and has seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.”
It should be noted that without supporting the troop’s mission it is not possible to truly support the troops. When the mission is in doubt, then those soldiers really did die in vain – and that is what Obama was saying. Even this being the case, by coming out clearly and articulately stating that those soldier’s lives were wasted shows the American people that he is not presidential material. Say good-bye to Barack Hussein Obama.
It is still early in the Presidential race, but I think it is fair to say that we can knock three contenders off the list of those running. However, the bigger question is…who will be next?
