(no subject)
Apr. 26th, 2004 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stevenehrbarKerry Now
LA Times: Kerry says he never claimed to have thrown the medals as his own. [ . . . ] "I never ever implied that I did it," Kerry says wearily.
Kerry 1971
ABC News: Asked about the anti-war veterans who threw their medals away [on the November 6, 1971 edition of Viewpoints], Kerry said "they decided to give them back to their country."
Kerry was asked if he gave back the Bronze Star, Silver Star and three Purple Hearts he was awarded for combat duty as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam. "Well, and above that, [I] gave back the others," he said.
"I gave back, I can't remember, 6, 7, 8, 9 medals."
Why did he insist now that a 33-year-younger version of himself never even implied he threw away his medals? If he'd told the LA Times, "I may have mistakenly implied it when I was younger," he could say now that yeah, in a TV interview 33 years ago he failed to draw a distinction between the ribbons and medals.
Instead, he has to explain why he made an absolute statement about his own actions to the LA Times that's been exposed as untrue two days after publication.
Been trying to figure out why this bothers me so much. I don't care about the medals. I don't even care too much about the factual contradiction; between memories over 33 years and natural human foibles, I can ignore that. What really irks me is, it seems, is the incompetence in making an unnecessarily absolute statement about a minor matter. This guy's been in the public eye for 33 years, a politician for 22, and a Senator for 20. And he sets himself up for a gotcha this way?
