Country Keepers by Gary Petersen

Outdoor Life magazine asked Senator John Kerry about his favorite gun. Here was his response:

“My favorite gun is the M-16 that saved my life and that of my crew in Vietnam,” said Mr. Kerry, a veteran, according to the October issue. “I don’t own one of those now, but one of my reminders of my service is a Communist Chinese assault rifle.”

So his favorite gun is a Chinese assualt rifle because it reminds him of the gun he used during his service in Vietnam. Setting aside both the question about a favorite gun and whether having an assualt rifle is a good thing or not, this seemed like an okay reason for liking a particular weapon. Senator Kerry did serve in Vietnam, after all, and it is not at all unreasonable to assume that he fired his weapon during his service in that war.

What’s odd about this story is that John Kerry doesn’t actually have a Communist Chinese assualt rifle, despite having said so. Except, it turns out, he didn’t actually say so.

Yes, I know, things just keep getting more and more odd at the Kerry campaign.

Apparantely, Outdoor Life asked this question of Senator Kerry through a written questionnaire. He apparantely delegated the response to these questions to his staff. And his staff apparantely made up an answer.

It’s hard to imagine that they’d have known the actual answer to this question. It isn’t the kind of thing you’d think would come up over a cup of coffee while on the campaign trail. So you’d think that they’d have had to ask Kerry himself for an answer.

But that would imply that Senator Kerry lied in answering the question, which noone is claiming.

Still, you have to wonder what his campaign staff was thinking in just making stuff up that would be treated as if the Senator himself had said it.

Or maybe they’re just taking the lead from Senator Kerry himself and are starting to waffle all on their own.

Filed under: Politics