Brokaw: "Someone has analyzed the president's military aptitude tests and yours, and concluded that he has a higher IQ than you do."
Kerry: "That's great. More power. I don't know how they've done it."
Pretty standard throw-away question with a typical answer. No big deal, right?
Well, the problem is that the answer Kerry gave to that question was actually this:
Kerry: That’s great. More power. I don’t know how they’ve done it, because my record is not public. So I don’t know where you’re getting that from. (Emphasis mine -RR)
This is a big deal because Kerry claims to have made all his military records available online. However, unlike Bush, he has not signed the standard form 180 that authorizes complete release of his records and there are reportedly between 30 and 100 pages of records that have been withheld by the Navy.
Whether or not these pages contain anything of note is not the issue I'm addressing here but rather MSNBC's editing of the transcript for this article. Interestingly, an older article contains the complete quote so it's not like they went through and removed all instances. There are also other significant differences between the two articles. For example, after the truncated answer, the first article concludes with this:
Brokaw: "Do you think too many people in your party underestimate?"
Kerry: "I think people have always underestimated President Bush. But I'm proud that in those debates, I didn't underestimate him. I like the President. I just disagree with his choices. He chose not to give health care to Americans when he could have. He chose to block people importing drugs from Canada, when he could have done otherwise. He chose to create the biggest deficit in American history, so wealthy Americans could get a tax cut. I disagree with that value system. That, to me, represents the wrong choices for our country."
Brokaw: "Vice President Cheney says it's going to be 52-47 for their ticket. What do you say?"
Kerry: "You know, that's bravado. Here's what I'll say about Tuesday. I hope America comes out and votes in record numbers, because this is the most important election of our lifetime. And I believe America can do better. We can go to work. We can be stronger at home. We can regain our respect in the world. And I hope Americans will give me the chance to make them proud."
The older article containing the full answer follows it with this conclusion:
Brokaw: Do you think he's a smart man?
Kerry: I do. Yes, I do think he's a smart man.
Brokaw: Do you think too many people in your party underestimate?
Kerry: I think people have always underestimated President Bush. But I'm proud that in those debates, I didn't underestimate him.
Brokaw: Senator, I'm going to see the President over the weekend. Anything you want me to convey to him?
Kerry: Just say hello to him, and we'll chat on Tuesday.
Brokaw: I'll say to him what I'm going to say to you. Good luck.
Kerry: Thank you, sir.
Brokaw: Thank you.
It's somewhat suspicious that this one particular sentence was deleted, as it is potentially damaging to Kerry. The other edits tend to support the theory that it was just being edited for brevity and readability. Or the other edits could have been done to make this one seem less suspicious. The reasoning is circular and in the end there's really no way to know short of finding out who did it and asking him or her.
Hat tip to Charles at lgf. He seems more sure of the reason this edit was done, but then he has good cause to be.
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