Fresh from the futile filibuster he phoned in from Davos – and later denied he was leading – the Junior Windbag from Massachusetts this morning informed Katie Couric that “53 percent of Americans do not graduate from high school”.
Contrariwise, the U.S. Census Bureau says that a record high number of Americans over the age of 24 (85%) were high school graduates in 2003.
There are several possible explanations for Kerry’s flummery.
One, Kerry can’t count and/or, while he can divide Democrats, he can’t divide numbers. To wit, he initiated a filibuster that acheived 60.9% of the required votes (25 of 41) and his claimed graduation rate is 62.3% (53/85) of actual. That’s close enough to unity for government work in Massachusetts.
Two, in hexadecimal (base 16) 85 is the equivalent of 55. Again, close enough in a blue state.
Three, his fact checker is the Daily Kos, he heard it from Ralph Neas or he was passed a note from Nan Aron.
Four, no one in the classes of 2004 or 2005 graduated.
Five, the 40 million+ “interrupted tissue clumps” that have become medical waste since Roe v. Wade weren’t in the census data, but could “conceivably” be counted as Americans if you need them in a pinch. The Aborted-American minority is not pulling its weight.
Six, he does not know WTF he’s talking about.
The error is egregious enough that he may even acknowledge it. That will be interesting if it happens.
Imagine if Bush had said anything remotely similar.