John Kerry has cancelled all his campaign appearences today in the wake of his botched joke:

ABC news is reporting that Senator John Kerry has cancelled all appearances today – including a campaign stop in Philadelphia with Pennsylvania U.s. Senate candidate Bob Casey.

President Bush and other Republicans have been demanding Kerry make an apology for saying those who don’t study hard risk getting “stuck in Iraq.” Senator Kerry says his comments were a failed attempt at a joke that was directed at the president.

Last night Andrew Sullivan was on CNN saying he understands what happened with Kerry’s joke, however Kerry should swallow his pride and apologize for it. Something along the lines of “I was trying to make a joke and it got botched and the words in turn were misconstrued. For that I am deeply sorry and would never insult our troops the way the right has been making it out to be”. I agree with Andrew’s assessment. This would help get the story off the front page and out of the news cycle. It will also provide the best ammo to fight back with.

Adding to that ammo should be this clip from the 2004 White House Correspondents’ Dinner

People seem to have forgot about when George Bush was making jokes about WMD’s not being found in Iraq. Since his joke about the reason we went to war, almost 2,000 soldiers have died. None will die from Kerry’s botched joke. I would much rather someone joke (or even question) the intelligence of a loved one than joke about the very reason they sent my loved one to fight and die. That is what this clip shows – George Bush thinks it is funny that our soldiers are dead. That is the kind of animal he is.