The feeble tremble before opinion, the foolish defy it, the wise judge it, and the skillful direct it. ~~Jeane Platiere

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Here are a pair of recent opinion pieces—which, with admitted bias, I have deemed “goodâ€? and “badâ€?—that touch on the topic of John Kerry’s feeble attempt at humor…

GOOD OP (from the New York Times):

The Great Divider

As President Bush throws himself into the final days of a particularly nasty campaign season, he’s settled into a familiar pattern of ugly behavior. Since he can’t defend the real world created by his policies and his decisions, Mr. Bush is inventing a fantasy world in which to campaign on phony issues against fake enemies.

In Mr. Bush’s world, America is making real progress in Iraq. In the real world, as Michael Gordon reported in yesterday’s Times, the index that generals use to track developments shows an inexorable slide toward chaos. In Mr. Bush’s world, his administration is marching arm in arm with Iraqi officials committed to democracy and to staving off civil war. In the real world, the prime minister of Iraq orders the removal of American checkpoints in Baghdad and abets the sectarian militias that are slicing and dicing their country.

In Mr. Bush’s world, there are only two kinds of Americans: those who are against terrorism, and those who somehow are all right with it. Some Americans want to win in Iraq and some don’t. There are Americans who support the troops and Americans who don’t support the troops. And at the root of it all is the hideously damaging fantasy that there is a gulf between Americans who love their country and those who question his leadership.

Mr. Bush has been pushing these divisive themes all over the nation, offering up the ludicrous notion the other day that if Democrats manage to control even one house of Congress, America will lose and the terrorists will win. But he hit a particularly creepy low when he decided to distort a lame joke lamely delivered by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Mr. Kerry warned college students that the punishment for not learning your lessons was to “get stuck in Iraq.� In context, it was obviously an attempt to disparage Mr. Bush’s intelligence. That’s impolitic and impolite, but it’s not as bad as Mr. Bush’s response. Knowing full well what Mr. Kerry meant, the president and his team cried out that the senator was disparaging the troops. It was a depressing replay of the way the Bush campaign Swift-boated Americans in 2004 into believing that Mr. Kerry, who went to war, was a coward and Mr. Bush, who stayed home, was a hero. [full text]

BAD OP (from Mike Gallagher at TownHall.com):

John Kerry, Stand-up Comic

So Sen. John Kerry was kidding? He called his ugly, mean-spirited attack on every single American who has ever served or is serving in the military a “botched joke” about the President?

As Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies would say: “Riiiiiiight.”

The junior Senator from Massachusetts looks out at a group of college kids and tells them that if they do their homework and study hard, they won’t wind up being “stuck in Iraq.” After the stuff hits the fan, he marches up to another podium and insists he was just “joking” about President Bush and his “broken policies.” And refuses to apologize to anyone.

Nice try, Senator. Classy. Bright. Insightful. And boy, are you funny. There’s nothing like joking about our troops and their commander-in-chief during a time of war where our soldiers are fighting and dying that can bring down the house.

Please remember to tip your waitress.

But since humor is the order of the day, I think I can just join the crowd:

Did you hear the one about the junior Senator from Massachusetts who likes to wear women’s lingerie?

Oh, never mind – that was just a botched joke about the economic policy of France.

In the scheme of things, I wonder what voters will consider a more important “scandal”: a disgraced Republican Congressman who was immediately drummed out of his job after it was revealed that he sent nasty e-mails to pages or a sitting U.S. Senator who claims that our troops are lazy, ignorant and uneducated? [full text]