Let's go with the joke as Kerry said he intended it. Both he and baby Bush went to Yale. Kerry got his B.A. from Yale in 1966, two years before the Bush-baby got his in 1968. Kerry joined the legendary (?!) Skull and Crossbones Society just like Bush-daddy while there. No populism readily observable there in the man. Since Bush-baby was accorded the same honor, Kerry's claimed joke would indicate this same society was not too selective.

In 1973 Kerry attended the Boston Law School in Newton Mass receiving his Juris Doctorate in 1976. Bush-baby on the other hand settled (?) for an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1975. When Kerry met JFK back in the 60's, they joked about the fact the former had ended up at Yale rather than Harvard (a crime for humble Massachussetts populists). Somehow they managed to make light of it by referring to getting a Harvard education with a Yale degree (Is there another joke there?). JFK soon went on to become a great populist icon but Kerry had to wait while he risked his life in a very popular war JFK was at least partially responsible for getting us into. Of course we can blame it all on LBJ who was not from New England, went to the wrong schools and lifted his dog by the ears. LBJ was also a political thug who evolved a social conscience when ascending to the Presidency.

The drafted browns and blacks and poor and uneducated were put there primarily by the leaders of Democratic Party and their policies, but this did not prevent Kerry from achieving his fame by carving out his future fame in the left wing of this party. The New Englander headed right to the snob humanitarianism of far West San Francisco on the wave of colorful flower children and never looked back. Or did he? Somehow, the joke as he says he intended needs future scrutiny.

Was he implying that Yale did not always admit worthy students? Or that it granted unjustified degrees? Or that an MBA from that Harvard he never got to, could not be compared with his J.D. from BLSNM? Was he saying that famed Ivy League institutions can put out mediocre frauds? How come we have not heard any complaint from these venerable educational icons, if the Kerry joke is what he claimed it to be?

Kerry will certainly fail to be elected even if again nominated. As Shakespeare said "Cassius has a lean and hungry look. . ." As was the case in ancient Rome, though Cassius claimed to fight for the republican values, he was the elitist and Caesar was the populist. It was all about power, and privilege. And though Kerry may have never owned a "pencil boat" (whatever that is), he has not yet condemned his former membership in the Skull and Crossbones Society, methinks he would probably look down at my mere B.A. from Columbia College, and not invite me to the San Francisco soirees, unless I made considerable monetary contributions of course. But that's OK with me.

The last time I was in the "City of Love" I was being constantly panhandled by bug-eyed drug addicts right in the middle of down-town. I actually felt unsafe there. But of course these zombies were not stupid enough to volunteer to join the Armed Forces. Ooops! I almost forgot that was NOT the joke. That may not have been what he claimed it to be either.

Kerry, the joke is quite possibly you.