Elisabeth Bumiller of the NYTimes delivers A Tale of Two Bikers, covering the bicycling thrills and spills of John Kerry and George Bush. It was the best of rides, it was the worst of rides, and Ms. Bumiller pounces on John Kerry, unfairly (IMHO):
Moving on, let's take a look at Mr. Bush's and Mr. Kerry's bike sportsmanship.
When Mr. Bush had his spill, Mr. Kerry's reaction rapidly coursed through political cyberspace. According to The Drudge Report, Mr. Kerry said to reporters in what he believed was an off-the-record remark, "Did the training wheels fall off?"
The Chicago Sun-Times then reported that Chicago's Democratic mayor, Richard M. Daley - who ripped the skin off his kneecap in a bicycle accident a few years ago - had scolded Mr. Kerry for the wisecrack. "You should not wish ill upon anyone," Mr. Daley said.
The Republican National Committee then seized on Mr. Daley's remarks and sent them out as an attack e-mail under the headline "They said it!"
Mr. Kerry took his own fall from a bike on May 2 after he hit a patch of sand on a two-lane road in Concord, Mass. Mr. Kerry had no injuries and Mr. Bush had no reaction, at least none that we know of.
Mr. Kerry made his remark one day after Mr. Bush described the transition to Iraqi sovereignty as taking the training wheels off, so his remark can be put in a somewhat less ghastly light by defending it as a politically topical quip. Statesmanlike and mature? Hardly - but not as bad as it is presented here in the Times.
SIDEBARS: (1) VRWC buffs are delighted to see Matt Drudge quoted in the Times.
(2) Since the official position of the Kerry camp has been that his remark is off the record, they have been helpless to defend themselves (sorry, no cite, but a "no comment" flickered by in some earlier story). Perhaps Ms. Bumiller's insidious plan is to bait them into a response which will drag the whole incident onto the record - could she have been one of the reporters chatting with Kerry at the time?
(3) Best of Times, Worst of Times, or The Truth Is Out There, and sometimes in there: The Times eventually corrected one glaring (but minor) error, and has never come back to another:
(a) 75% chance of getting killed on his SWIFT boat on Feb 24, with a March 4 correction;
(b) Kerry as an "ex-lieutenant" in 1970 when he met with members of the North Vietnamese peace delegation.
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