I have family members, who've attended West Point and the admissions standards are clearly rigorous. Moreover, a cadet or midshipman is held to high standards just to maintain his or her standing in the academy.

That said, while on its face Kerry's statements appear insulting to the heroes who are fighting in Iraq because of their commitment to serve America, not a mental deficiency, I honestly do not believe that he intended his statement to refer to soldiers. Prior to the comment, he had been addressing what he perceived to be failures of Bush, and when he said, "you end up in Iraq," I believe he meant it as saying a lack of education, knowledge, wisdom or learning can result in unwise decisions, such as the decisions that got us involved in Iraq. I think it would have been much clearer if he said, "You end up getting us in Iraq."

Nonetheless, he should apologize for any misunderstanding. I don't think it will have any effect on the elections.