Five months after Kate Zernike helped Sen. Kerry [1]launch a faulty and belated assault on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (the group that questioned the merits of some of his Vietnam War medals), she again carries his water in her Thursday "Political Memo." 
The headline, "Flubbed Joke Makes Kerry a Political Punching Bag, Again [2]," gives Kerry the benefit of the doubt in assuming he didn't actually mean what came out of his mouth (he now claims he was attacking George W. Bush's lack of education, not the troops').
"But with a single word - or a single word left out of what was supposed to be a laugh line directed at the president - Mr. Kerry has become a punching bag again, for Republicans and for his own party."
"A single word?" More like an entire sentence.
"Mr. Kerry's prepared remarks to California students on Monday called for him to say, '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. Just ask President Bush.' In his delivery, he dropped the word 'us.'"
Zernike is implying that Kerry actually said "Just ask President Bush," which would lead credence to his "botched joke" idea. But if he had actually said that, this wouldn't be an issue at all, because everyone would know he was "merely" insulting the president.
As Pattericopoints out [3],political reporter Zernike somehow misses what everyone in America into politics already knows: Kerry's "flubbed joke"didn't mention Bush at all.
"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."