Kerry comments on troops

I was never huge John Kerry fan. Today Kerry said:

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Reading it the first time, it does seem to be an insult to troops, making them out to be unintelligent. After hearing his passionate defense, that the remark was a botched joke about President Bush, it became a little clearer. I think I even know how he botched it. He forgot to add three words to the end, "like George Bush." His corrected statement should read:

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq, like George Bush."

**UPDATE**
It looks like not all Republicans/conservatives got the memo about the bashing Kerry for his comments. The pollster for Bush-Cheney '04, Matthew Dowd and Republican ex-Majority Leader Dick Armey disagreed with the assertion that Kerry meant to insult troops. Dowd said that Kerry "just misspoke" and Armey said, "The President wants the people to perceive [Kerry] of having maligned our troops… I think John Kerry’s right. He’s making a defense of himself. He’s saying, ‘Look, I was not maligning the troops, I was maligning the President of the United States.'”