More then likely, as CNN Says:

Republicans unleashed a firestorm of criticism Tuesday against Sen. John Kerry after the Vietnam veteran told college students they’d "get stuck in Iraq" if they didn’t work hard in school.

Kerry later said the remark was a "botched joke" meant to target the president, not U.S. troops.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, spoke to students at Pasadena City College in California on Monday.

He then said: "You know, education — if you make the most of it, you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well.

"If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq."

A Kerry aide told CNN that the prepared statement, which had been designed to criticize President Bush, "was mangled in delivery."

Kerry was supposed to say, "I can’t overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."

OK, maybe.  Let’s say I buy that explanation, which is moderately plausible.  I mean by that, that I think the possibility that he is lousy at telling jokes is very likely.

The big question is this:  So what?

After the mistake, he should have clarified it and apologized, not gone on the attack against anyone who criticized what he said, and not sat there at the rally and accepted cheers from the crowd after he implied that our troops were lazy idiots.

The problem has now moved on beyond the botched joke. It has moved on to his response.

Let me be clear (and fair):  mistakes happen, so this could be true. 

But being an adult means you step up and take responsibility for it.  Even my kids know that.

All he had to say was "I screwed up the joke and I mistakenly implied something I did not intend".

As I told a friend of mine, whose husband has been to Iraq (and who is more then just a bit offended):  Sometimes when a joke falls flat, it is painful and embarrassing to have to sit and explain it, so as not to offend anyone, but at least it is honest.

And we would have all moved on.  But by attacking all his critics he makes it sound too defensive.

And that just makes people wonder what he really meant, and what his true feelings about the troops are.  Say Anything suggests it could be a Freudian Slip.  Makes ya wonder.

Get mad at people like me if you want John, but it was YOU who screwed up.  So deal with it by actually dealing it.

See the latest at Hot Air, where he still refuses to apologize.  Kerry’s idiocy may be the latest October Surprise.

Also see this statement by the American Legion and this one by AMVET.  I think some vets are pissed.  Besides me of course.

And Kerry’s latest response?  I apoligize to no one.

Previously: John Kerry suffers foot and mouth disease, John Kerry has a meltdown, and issue a non apoology Updated

Others: Hot Air, Say Anything, Michelle Malkin and here, here, here and here, Corsair, Captains Quarters, Right Winged, Blue Crab and here, Right Voices, Sister Toldjah and here, Wizbang, Iowa Voice, Texas Rainmaker, Stop The ACLU, Chez Diva, Ace of Spades, Anchoress, Hugh Hewitt, Big Dog; Woman Honor Thyself, Bills Bites