As midterm elections approach, candidates and political figures must be very mindful of what… As midterm elections approach, candidates and political figures must be very mindful of what they say.

Sen. John Kerry learned that the hard way this week.

Political sparks began to fly after Kerry (D-Mass.) inadvertently attacked U.S. troops in a botched joke at a campaign rally for a Democratic California gubernatorial candidate on Tuesday.

While at Pasadena City College, Kerry, in an attempt to correlate the issue of education with our current failed foreign policy in Iraq, told students, “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq,” according to the New York Times.

Unfortunately, Kerry might want to re-think comedy as a future campaigning tactic, because his “joke” was taken seriously by many.

Kerry’s words, which were originally intended to take a humorous jab at the intelligence of President Bush, backfired on him in a very big way, and they were construed as an attack upon the intelligence of our nation’s military.

What Kerry meant to say, however, was actually quite different.

Kerry’s aides later stated that the joke had been prepared as follows: “Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush.”

Kerry’s statement was a joke. OK, a really bad joke. But it is obvious that the Vietnam veteran had not intended to insult the troops, but instead a leader who he believed had not done his homework prior to entering Iraq.

But good intentions aside, Kerry’s comments couldn’t have come at a better time for Republicans, who quickly attacked the senator’s remarks, hoping to fire up conservative voters in the days before elections.

President Bush, taking a chance to relive the glory of his 2004 presidential campaign, did not hesitate to attack Kerry’s “insulting” and “shameful” statement, insisting that, “The members of the United States military are plenty smart and they are plenty brave, and the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology.”

Kerry’s statement quickly turned the former presidential candidate into a political liability to Democratic candidates hoping to secure victories next Tuesday, and he was dropped from several scheduled campaign appearances this week.

While Kerry’s slip-up alone will probably not affect individual votes this Tuesday, it has provided a rallying point for the Republican Party, which, as of late, has been plagued with scandal and disapproval concerning the situation in Iraq. And with a little bit of momentum and a week of campaigning left before Election Day, there is a possibility that Republicans can turn themselves around.

Realistically, had Kerry’s comments come at a different time, let’s say not seven days before a pivotal set of midterm elections, they probably would have slipped through the cracks of the national spotlight. Everybody makes mistakes — even political figures (the president has an entire calendar devoted to his oratal slip-ups, for Pete’s sake).

But it is election season, which means that forgetting just one teensy word, like “in,” can cost you big-time, and Kerry’s mistake may have lasting, political ramifications.