Awoogah! Awoogah! backbone in sight!

One of the reasons I never considered Kerry as anything other than a tragic and somewhat comedic option to vote for as president was because of his lackadaisacal approach to issues. I would separate this from the now-popular phrase "flip-flopper" because, for good or ill, the meaning has been lost behind the rhetoric. I have no issue whatsoever with people shifting their views on an issue...as long as there is a sound reason for it. Kerry never gave a reason to believe he was shifting his standpoint for any purpose other than potential political gain and that is something I have no use for no matter who does it.
To me his actions reached a point where they struck me as contradictory and he was someone I regarded as being with a limited backbone...he would shift views according to which way the wind blew. One would think he studied the career of Clinton who was a master at not only doing that...but offering up reasons it was the way to act. In fact, Clinton was so good at it and his reasons so sound that A) I never would have noticed had it not been charted by US News and World Report and, more importantly, B) his reasons were strong enough that I found it to be actually a very favorable thing and is something I actually respect him for. You can write that down because there ain't much I respect Clinton for. Kerry never offered, that I could see, justification other than "oh, I better act as 'the opposition' so I get votes".
Suddenly, he has developed a backbone. Has there ever been a better quote than, "I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium.”
Sadly, what is being lost in the argument over the comments and whether they are an insult to the troops, the President and his administration, both, or neither, is actually a very, very important point.
One of the first rules of political comedy is to be really funny, it has to contain some grain of truth. And I will be the first to admit the comment made me laugh...because statistically speaking, the military has long been primarily composed of those who, whether by choice or lack of ability, failed to advance their education. There are a lot of factors that come into play...funding, availability, quality of preparatory schooling, social pressures, economic background, etc...but the end result is lack of education is a large contributing factor to military service.
This is important because when you join the military you A) give up a large number of your civilian civil rights and B) unlike poker, what you are gambling is not your money...it's your life. You might get sent places you don;t want to go for reasons you don't agree with to do things you don;t want to do. That is the risk you take. And if you lose your bet, you might come out missing an arm or leg or eye...or your breath.
This is a serious issue, who enters the military and why. It is a topic worth having a national discourse over and considering changes to the social structure that results in the most vulnerable people taking the most dangerous job. Unfortunately, both sides are more interested in making political hay over it. Nice to see they all really, really care about their soldiers.