Reality's Revenge

The White House's unmistakable delight at its ability to fixate the media on a John Kerry blooper serves as a potent reminder of how much happier Bush and his aides are engaging in rhetorical games than dealing with reality.

But the upcoming election is turning out to be about reality -- and about the reality in Iraq, in particular.

The Kerry Kerfuffle

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Kerry, of course, apologized yesterday for a joke he made on Monday that he intended to be at the president's expense -- but which came out in a way that struck some as impugning the intelligence of U.S. troops.

Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei write in The Washington Post: "The White House and Republican allies orchestrated a cascade of denunciations throughout the day to keep the once and possibly future presidential candidate on the defensive and force other Democrats to distance themselves. . . .

"Republican strategists appeared almost gleeful over the contretemps because it revived a favorite target at a time they need to motivate core supporters to vote in Tuesday's midterm elections. GOP officials have tried to make the elections not a referendum on President Bush but a choice between two parties with competing visions over taxes, terrorism and Iraq, but they have struggled to find a symbol for Democrats. Kerry's comments have allowed Republicans to make him again the face of his party and cast 2006 as a rerun of Bush vs. Kerry. . . .

"Bush for the second day took aim at his old foe as well. 'It didn't sound like a joke to me,' he said in an interview with news services . In a separate interview with radio host Rush Limbaugh , Bush said, 'Anybody who is in a position to serve this country ought to understand the consequences of words, and our troops deserve the full support of people in government.'

"Cheney also jumped into the fray, his office so eager that in a rare move it sent out advance excerpts from a speech given later in the day. 'Senator Kerry said he was just making a joke and he botched it up,' Cheney said. 'I guess we didn't get the nuance. Actually, he was for the joke before he was against it.'"

Kate Zernike writes in the New York Times: "The White House, which had been struggling for ways to make President Bush less of a liability in the election, seized on Mr. Kerry's comments, with the president, vice president and spokesmen blanketing radio and television to blast him for impugning the troops. . . .

"'It's the skill of the flak machine to make him the target of ridicule when on everything else he's been doing, he has been really tough, he's been really clear, he's been really on,' said one of Mr. Kerry's advisers. 'You can imagine how frustrating this thing is to all of us. And him in particular.'"

Marc Sandalow writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: "It is a case study in modern politics or lunacy -- perhaps both -- that two sentences uttered by a Massachusetts senator not up for re-election would come to dominate the political airwaves less than a week before what is shaping up as a historic national election. . . .

"Experts described a perfect political storm in which the GOP's desperation to tarnish their opponents, the Democrats' defensiveness over being branded as soft on defense and the media's fixation with conflict all collided within days of a close, fiercely fought election. . . .

"The news media kept the conflict alive as the war of words dominated the day's political coverage. White House press secretary Tony Snow fielded 31 questions on the matter at his daily news conference. . . .