Not buying it
Drudge says the reporter who got the story about Kerry’s foreign leaders’ endorsement is now stating that he said more leaders not foreign leaders. If Kerry had 1) denied saying it from the start or 2) not had such hissy-fit about disclosure and telling people it’s none of their business, it might be believable.
Update: Kerry is not denying that he said he has support from world leaders.
March 16th, 2004 at 10:44 am
Ok, but then the question is: more leaders of WHAT?
“The news, the coverage in other countries, the news in other places. I’ve met more [sic] leaders who can’t go out and say it all publicly, but boy they look at you and say, you gotta win this, you gotta beat this guy, we need a new policy, things like that. There is enormous energy out there. Tell them, whereever they can find an American abroad, they can contribute.”
[emphasis mine]
It’s pretty obvious, too, from Ferrell’s comments, that the context was the opinions of, well, foreigners. So maybe he really did say “more leaders,” but from the context I think we can conclude they were foreign.
March 16th, 2004 at 5:59 pm
denied saying it from the start
And how would that have gone over? He’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t because a reporter muffed a quote.
Thib..As I see it, “more leaders” could refer to any kind of “leader”, but “foreign leaders” would refer to heads of state.
March 16th, 2004 at 6:55 pm
Manish, I agree that we can’t conclude he meant heads of state, but do YOU agree that he was talking about people in other countries?
I still wonder: leaders of what/whom? Scout troop leaders?
March 16th, 2004 at 7:14 pm
Maybe it was “moron leaders”?
March 17th, 2004 at 1:21 am
It was a really odd statement, no doubt about that. It could refer to foreigners and it could refer to Americans abroad. You’ll also note:
more [sic] leaders who can’t go out and say it all publicly, but boy they look at you and say, you gotta win this, you gotta beat this guy, we need a new policy
The “we” suggests that its Americans. He seems to be going back and forth between talking about people in America and those outside of America. His remarks were preceded by someone saying that support wasn’t just in the 50 states, but also internationally.
March 17th, 2004 at 10:30 am
Maybe he was talking about leaders of American ex-patriate groups in other countries?