You’re the one putting a lot of claims in my mouth that aren’t there.

Actually that is fair. I don’t think it was stupid, and I gather it was the reporter who made it sound stupid, but you are right. I merely linked to you as one calling people stupid. I wanted people to have a feel for the various comments. I really wasn’t addressing the post to you and most of what I was saying is more properly addressed to others. My apologies.

2. I never claimed it wasn’t true. I said it was stupid and I stand by the assessment. Having grown up with smokers I’m aware how important the issue is to those who indulge, but even they wouldn’t pick that as the first reason to revolt against AQI. I guess they just don’t have their priorities as straight as Mr. Thompson.

3. I never said he doesn’t deserve to be president for the comment. I never suggested people shouldn’t vote for him for saying it. I said it makes him look like an idiot. What I’m really sick of is people who claim I said things I didn’t say.

4. I did giggle and make a snarky remark. That’s pretty much the whole point of my entry. I thought it was a stupid thing to say and I said as much. You’re the one putting a lot of claims in my mouth that aren’t there.

2. You have no idea of the context. So even if your excuse held any water, you don’t know that. The report didn’t give us any details to judge. We don’t even know the attendees were puzzled, just that the reporter said so. the bloggers mentioned, including you, complaint wasn’t based on it sounding flip, but that it wasn’t true and ridiculous. Smoking is pretty important to many people, just like outlawing beer in Germany would create a backlash.

3. it was a talk, not a full exegesis. As I said, by the standard you just applied nobody deserves to be president, because nobody can avoid saying true things day after day that one doesn’t give enough explanation for. Don’t you hate it when that kind of thing is done to liberals, and then the people opposing him refuse to admit that he or she had a point? I really get tired of it, and it was tiring when it was turned on Kerry and Gore as well.

4. You may still think it is stupid, but is it stupider than a bunch of people rolling their eyes at what they consider to be some made up right wing fantasy when in fact it was true? Pardon me if I don’t agree. It isn’t a big deal, as long as you sit back and reflect at how silly it is to try and make hay about such things in the first place. If it wasn’t true, giggle. make a snarky remark, but you have to know it is pretty meaningless. If you don’t, well get a life. There is too much of that kind of thing already, why be more wood on that fire?

The response as it stands sounds flippant and, quite honestly, stupid. It’s not the sort of thing that would keep me from voting for the man — there are plenty of other more serious reasons I wouldn’t vote for him — but it does nothing to buff his image as having any intelligence.

Other people calling people stupid because they are too ignorant to know better, the ever ready to do so Oliver Willis, The Blue Herald, Skippy, Lew Rockwell, The Peoples Republic of Seabrook, and Stupid Evil Bastard.

As soon as I read the first example of someone slamming Thompson for the remark, I realized the problem. I remembered that I had read about the smoking factor in one of the dispatches from Iraq and that Fred was spot on. And it was obvious that none of the above suspects would be caught dead reading a dispatch from someone on the ground in Iraq, unless that dispatch was from someone sufficiently leftward as to not challenge their preconceptions about how bad the situation is over there. “Michael Yon? Bill Roggio? Bill Ardolino? Michael Totten? Who’s are they?”