corrente

I love the way the reporter calls Jon Stewart's program "pseudo-journalism." Pseudo as compared to what? Jodi Will-Whore-Em? Judy "Kneepads" Miller? Hey, and where is Jeff Gerth these days?

Anyhow:

Stewart kicked off his questioning to laughter when he made a personal note that he watches a lot of cable TV and "I understand that apparently you were never in Vietnam." Kerry responded: "That's what I understand, too. But I -- I'm trying to find out what happened."

urning serious, Kerry said the charges that he exaggerated his military record in Vietnam and turned on fellow veterans with Senate testimony about war atrocities at the hands of U.S. soldiers did not really surprise him. Kerry made a veiled reference to links between the backers of the anti-Kerry group, known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and the Bush family and Texas Republicans, which he called "the Web and the network."

"I think Americans will discover it as we go forward in the next four or five weeks, George Bush doesn't wanna talk about the real issues," Kerry said. "I mean what's he going to do? Come out and say we lost 1.8 million jobs."

Stewart ran through the litany of unfavorable Republican talking points about Kerry: he's too liberal or "more liberal than Karl Marx," as Stewart put it, and a waffler on the issues.

"I've flip-flopped, flop-flipped," Kerry deadpanned when asked if he was or ever had flip-flopped.

Kerry then pivoted: "Is it a flip-flop -- I don't know what compassionate conservative means. Does it mean cutting kids out of after-school programs? Does it mean drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge? Does it mean sending kids to Iraq without body armor that's state of the art?"
(via Newsday)

Nice point on the body armor. Hammer it!

All over America, parents had to buy their own soldier children body armor. Chambers of Commerce did the same thing for armoring HumVees.

And Inerrant Boy could reimburse them—and more importantly, recognize them—with a single executive order. I wonder why he doesn't?

Readers—does anyone have a transcript of the Kerry interview? Or the video?

UPDATE Wonkette has the transcript. Readers, how were the visuals? Realize, I'm hoping for a Clinton-with-the-saxophone moment here, but that may be a little ambitious...