"Why is somebody riding a bicycle while in the midst of sensitive negotiations and attempting to secure nuclear weapons for Iran? Exercise? BS. He's doing that for the photo-op, trying to look hip with the young generation that thinks life is all about exercise and fitness and so forth. Photo-op. That's why [he's] out there riding the bike. Same thing with the windsurfing. It's basic to me. You'd have never seen Dean Rusk with a bicycle out there. You'd have never seen Dean Acheson out there [or] Dulles on a bike. You'd have never seen the great Colin Powell out there on a bicycle heading off to a meeting at the UN. This is embarrassing.... They had to take Lurch to the hospital, and it's so bad now that he's being flown back to Boston 'cause he might need surgery. You know, I remember what Obama said, that there's a lot of doctors out there who do unnecessary surgery just for the extra quick bucks, like amputations and so forth.... So I just hope Kerry does not get one of those doctors Obama was talking about and ends up with his leg amputated here just for the quick extra buck."
Rush Limbaugh, yesterday.
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Gigalos gotta stay hot for the ladies. Never know when he will need to marry another bazionaire "for love."
Indeed, why does a 71-year-old secretary of state get on a bicycle? But, typical, I suppose: What's wrong with Democrats?"
Why would he come back to the worlds worst health care system for surgery anyways? Can't afford jet fare to Cuba?
What's so "great" about Colin Powell?
Kerry is a figment of his own imagination making love and not war since 1965.
This is a serious disability that will take nine months to regain his mobility.
FDR is his role model now.
And the thighbone that he broke is connected to a previous hip replacement.
They flew him back to Boston to the surgeon who installed that in case the replacement joint needs fixing after the fall too.
Worse than that, he decided to ride his bike in France. What, they don't ride bikes in Switzerland? Maybe save the cost of a jet helicopter to save the road trip back?
Those cutting quacks--anything for a buck--are dangerous. But that won't hurt so much as Teresa cutting him out of her will.
Of all the things to be outraged about, we're going to be outraged that Kerry was riding a bicycle? I'll save my vituperation. It needs to last through the next election.
If Rush was equally outraged about Bush falling off the Segway while he was president, I must have missed it. (I mean that--for all I know Rush could have been pissed about that too)
Probably he doesn't ride a bike enough. It's a beginner's mistake.
I don't recall any injury that Bush suffered if he fell off a Segway. I do recall a Democrat tempest in a teacup when Bush choked on a potato chip.
What is interesting about Kerry is that the femur is not easy to break. It takes quite a bit of force. For a normal femur, anyway. I just wonder about Kerry and his health.
I was at the "Bike Rodeo" this week where the local Goodwill sells bikes they've fixed up and got myself a nice 29" wheel bike for $80. Rides like a boat. Told everyone it was my old man bike. Maybe Kerry should be riding an old man bike.
The first thing old people do before they die, is fall down and break something. My neighbor who was 73, fell down and broke her neck. She took four days to die.
Teresa Heinz: 'Would you have married me if my ex-husband hadn't left me a fortune?'
John Kerry 'I'd have married you no matter who left you a fortune."
One has to look for the silver lining: with Kerry injured he won't be able to continue negotiating with Iran.
Nobody's outraged. It's just funny and we are having fun with a tailor made object of derisive humor.
I rode a hundred miles on Sunday partially in the rain. Crested the biggest hill in a downpour. Didn't get struck by lightning. Saw a full double rainbow as my reward. Guess I'm not an old man yet.
It's a shame John Kerry can't challenge Rush Limbaugh to a duel.
Kerry was a douche from day one. Everybody in Massachusetts has a JFK story. His humiliating 1972 congressional campaign was one of those great moments. The carpetbagger with the wealthy wife was always destined for the better things in life, but it was especially satisfying see him slumming for votes in uber blue collar Merrimack Valley. He was the daily punching bag for the Lowell Sun and a bunch of local no-name politicians. Culminating with his brother Cameron’s arrest for breaking and entering the basement of an opponent’s campaign office. His loss was a Caddysack moment.
Have we so quickly forgotten George Bush's mountain bike riding?
A couple neighbors, a retired couple not so much younger than Kerry, spent last summer bicycling across Canada. Because they wanted to.
Limbaugh's outrage is not over Kerry getting hurt, or Kerry engaging in an activity. Would he have ranted about Kerry throwing out his back bowling? Or if he sprained his ankle jogging? No, Limbaugh just hates bicycles. As too many conservatives weirdly, pointlessly do.
JSD, your Kerry narrative is new to me. How did I miss that story, particularly the part about his brother?
Oh, that's right, he's a Democrat.
I still think the Italian press has it right, that Kerry was targeted by Iran and they failed to kill him. The Iranians had already left Geneva, thinking it was a done deal.
Kerry can do what he wants, but I thought he was in a part of the world with excellent medical care. He should have stayed thete, had surgery and recovered. If he wanted a certain doctor involved, Kerry has the means to buy that doctor a plane ticket and compensate him for his time. This was a misuse of taxpayer money.
I don't begrudge Kerry his athletic endeavors, but as one who has seen him in person, He's not much of an an athlete.
" No, Limbaugh just hates bicycles. As too many conservatives weirdly, pointlessly do."
I think it has more to do with the moral preening of leftists about exercise and healthy behavior, except of course marijuana smoking. That's OK.
At the of 18 I was drag racing motorcycles (legally) at the track.
At the age of 58 I decide to take up motorcycling again. After riding about 10 hours total over several weeks, I hit a stray dog. Broken hand, mashed ankle, road rash all over.
Should have followed Clint Eastwood's advice. "A man's got to know his limitations."
Hopefully Kerry will pick up on this.
If this is only a partial fracture of the femur and the closeness to the area of the hip joint prosthetic is why Kerry wants his chosen doctor, then why haven't we had a personal direct statement from Kerry himself? The scale of resources dedicated to his evacuation seems odd.
So they didn't want to say "broken hip" because that is what old people on their way to the morgue get. No, it was a broken femur. Right.
Like I said, I don't begrudge the old gigalo his pleasures. I am just glad we never made him president.
"I don't begrudge the old gigalo his pleasures."
Yes and I certainly can't blame him for wanting to stay away from Teresa and her booze.
The scale of resources dedicated to his evacuation seems odd.
The scale of resources devoted to everything our regal leaders do is odd, especially since the current crop are supposedly left wing populists.
The injury itself is plain flat out dangerous for a 71 year old man. (Blood clots and the like.) Air travel will also put him at risk if he has surgery.
Old people need to hate bicycles. They cause broken bones because their balance and reaction time are not the same as they used to be in their imaginations.
"Yes and I certainly can't blame him for wanting to stay away from Teresa and her booze."
Cheap shot. Teresa has some serious non-alcohol related health issues. She is now 77 years old. This has nothing to do with her.
Maybe the point is that an old man at risk of a broken hip shouldn't be riding bicycles? IDK, maybe it is a point about dignity, knowing Rush, and I don't listen to him anymore, it is probably about the dignity of the office.
I don't agree with him, for the record. But the old man should probably stop doing dangerous things and break down and buy one of those stairway elevators and maybe a Lark to ride around while he gets his affairs in order for Zeke's final ride.
Cheap shot
ROTFLMAO!
God knows cheap shots aren't allowed in American politics anymore. We should accord every Democrat woman the same respect accorded Sarah Palin.
Has Andrew Sullivan finished spelunking Sarah Palin's vagina yet?
I still ride a bike to and from work, but I'm (only ;) ) 54.
A curious thing about aging....it's easy to think that it's not really happening to you. My face flashed up on a news segment on TV this past week, and I was all "Whoa -- who's the old guy?"
I blame the Mossad. Those guys are good.
Kerry injured and forced to fly home before finalizing a nuclear arrangement with Iran?
As the proverb goes, "God protects idiots, drunkards, children, and the United States of America."
There was starting to be some mention of Kerry as a possible alternative to the struggling Hillary.
But the damned Iranians have refused to cooperate and now this.
It's not the bike riding, it's the outfit he was wearing that's painful to see.
He doesn't have Obamacare....he is above that, so he will be just fine.
I don't recall any injury that Bush suffered if he fell off a Segway.
Don't know the entirety of that story, but a couple years ago, at a firm retreat, ran into the president of Segway at the time. I had been talking to the security guard riding around on his Segway, and had come back a bit later to get a chance at riding it. This guy walks up, and starts talking to guard about Segways. In regards to Bush (43), he was the guy who got the late night call about the accident. Apparently, GW bailed instead of hitting someone. And, what wasn't shown was that his father (41) was standing on another Segway a couple feet away. In any case, this guy claimed to have taken the hit, essentially blaming the accident on the Segway, and not on GW trying to keep from hitting some kid.
But, keep in mind that Bush (43) was probably a decade or so younger than Kerry is now when he had his Segway accident. Maybe more.
I do worry about this with my brothers. I now have two of them over 60 who ride a bit, one on a road bike, and the other mostly a mountain bike. Neither is a slouch when riding. And, I don't see either one giving it up in the near future. Still a decade younger than Kerry, but...
Still, the older brother of a friend (or, realistically, she is the mother of a couple friends) was riding a road bike in his early 80s, crashed, and couldn't kick out of his clips. Never really walked after that, and without that mobility, didn't last that long.
Rush is exactly the same age as I am, which is 6 years younger than Kerry. He seems to like thinking it's ridiculous for someone at all old to ride a bike, but, in fact, biking is nice exercise and a pleasant activity for the old. I think Rush is just himself unable or unwilling to do it. I'm fine with mocking Kerry (or Obama) for looking silly on a bike or for doing an obvious photo op or for having a stupid accident (like running into something stationary like a curb), but I don't think it's ridiculous for a 71-year-old to ride a bike. It's pretty normal, in fact.
W. mountain bikes. I don't get it.
This reminds me of Carlin's take on Rush's appearance
Carlin on Limbaugh
@Althouse, I agree as regards biking as a nice exercise for the elderly (I'm closer to Kerry's age than you are, you young whippersnapper). But the office of Secretary of State does call for gravitas. Notwithstanding Obama's recent factually challenged remark about restoring America's respect in the world, I doubt that "gravitas" is the first thought that came into their minds when foreign leaders met Hillary Clinton or John Kerry. That the latter foolishly ran his bike into a curb surely can't help.
Are we sure he was biking?
I mean first there's Harry Reid with his "exercise accident" over the holidays. Now there's John Kerry having an "exercise accident".
Is something sinister going on in the Democratic party? Is someone roughing up the old white men to make sure they don't try to challenge the "New Hotness" of Obama and/or Hillary?
For a normal femur, anyway. I just wonder about Kerry and his health.
Perhaps the femoral head fractured as a consequence of dislocation from the prosthetic hip?
Maybe it's all a sham so he has an excuse to vamoose the coalition-that-isn't that is meeting to defeat ISIS, before the next (and bigger) explosions in Saudia Arabia?
The scale of resources dedicated to his evacuation seems odd.
It's not nice to criticize how a man shits, or whatever it takes.
Oh...never mind.
"I don't think it's ridiculous for a 71-year-old to ride a bike. It's pretty normal, in fact."
I don't argue about the old "beach cruiser" type bikes. The racing bike like Kerry was showing off on are hard on the back and neck and go too fast for an older person to control easily. I was riding the beach cruiser type bike a couple of years ago and I'm 77. Where I live now it is too hilly for me but Tucson, where I still have a bike, is level.
Still my heart. What I've always waited for--Rush Limbaugh's expert commentary on fitness and exercise. :-0 What did he say about the 92-year old woman who completed the marathon.
Must have been a slow news day. Kerry has so many fault that who cares if he rides.
Beat him up on the big bux spent to fly him home on a huge military transport.
Kerry was not just "gtting some nice exercize," but was riding around the city with a squad of staffers and/or Secret Service types in full Tour de France mode and trailed by Secret Service in blacked out armored SUV's.
Not a good way to get along with the locals.
The man is, and always has been, an idiot.
Bike riding for elders can be dangerous.
Bono can no longer play the guitar after a bike accident in New York City that hurt his wrist.
Thank goodness Obama's Admin finished cleaning up the VA, too--just in time.
Ronald Reagan was horseback riding into his 70's.
Just saying.
Don't worry about the negotiations. Marie Harf has those covered. *drinks*
What's so "great" about Colin Powell?
He managed to screw this country twice as often as Bill Clinton managed to screw Barbara Streisand.
I wonder, did they send a C-17 to Switzerland just to transport Kerry back to the US (cost per flying hour $23,811 according to this 2013 Time article or was the plane going to go to the US anyway?
There are a lot of bikes between a "beach cruiser" and a "top-end made for racing road bike". I agree with Althouse that someone his age is certainly able to ride a bicycle, just not the high-end road bike he was on. I am 61 and ride mostly on a "hybrid/fitness" bike (a Trek FX), similar to the bikes we've seen Althouse and Meade ride on from time to time. Fwiw, I just had a total hip replacement in mid-April and my orthopedic surgeon was thrilled to know I was back to riding my bike a little over a week ago.
Phil 3:14 said...
Have we so quickly forgotten George Bush's mountain bike riding?
W Bush was aged 54 to 62 during his presidency - more than a decade younger than Kerry. And he wasn't out riding on the public streets with a motorcade trailing behind him either.
Just because Obama eats an ice cream cone while riding a beach cruiser in his Mom jeans on Martha's Vineyard doesn't mean Bush was taking undue risks.
And BTW, Bush is STILL riding his mountain bike - 100K every spring:
http://www.bushcenter.org/military-service-initiative/w100k
To answer Rush's question: "because he's an idiot". Further proof: spandex biking togs
Kerry still wants to be Prez
Did Limbaugh ever chide his idol Bill Buckley for looking silly on skis at his advanced age?
Of course a younger statesman can injure himself just walking down the stairs (Bill Clinton).
And the double stress of visiting your in-laws and playing golf can bring on a heart attack (Ike).
At least AA should be pleased Kerry wasn't riding in short pants.
Kerry is known as an avid cycler and has been photographed on that bike (or one just like it) many times. The bike is probably 10 years old (it's probably a titanium Serotta -- US made). There's no reason that Kerry, or any other reasonably fit 71 year old, can't ride a normal road bike. It does not cause problems with your neck or back if your neck still works and if you're not shaped like Limbaugh. All this yack about Kerry being too old to ride a normal road bike is just nonsense.
As for the accident being caused by a curb, I haven't read any details of exactly how the accident occurred, but any irregularity in the riding surface parallel to bicycle direction can cause a problem. Perhaps he misjudged a turn and cut it too close and grazed the curb. Or, perhaps the curb was very short where he was riding and he didn't notice it. Any of these sorts of unplanned minor irregularities, coupled with a bit of loose gravel or wetness, can cause a bicycle wheel to slide out from underneath a rider. Once that happens, you're going down and there's nothing to be done about it.
Danno:"There are a lot of bikes between a "beach cruiser" and a "top-end made for racing road bike". I agree with Althouse that someone his age is certainly able to ride a bicycle, just not the high-end road bike he was on. I am 61 and ride mostly on a "hybrid/fitness" bike (a Trek FX), similar to the bikes we've seen Althouse and Meade ride on from time to time. Fwiw, I just had a total hip replacement in mid-April and my orthopedic surgeon was thrilled to know I was back to riding my bike a little over a week ago."
I'm 64 and have recently been riding a Raleigh road bike that we bought in 1975. Not nearly as nice a bike as Kerry's, but the same basic idea. It doesn't cause me any problem and I'm not in the best of shape, though not a corpulent junkie like Limbaugh, either. Had a total hip replacement in late 2009 and took a road bike across Iowa in July 2010 (with about 10,000 others -- many into their late 60s at least) with no problem. Cycling is great exercise for people with fake hips.
There's nothing wrong with Kerry's choice of bike. It seems to fit him well and from the videos I've seen, he appears to be a competent rider.
I'm no Kerry fan and don't mind seeing him getting slammed for being a dufus, crank, fraud, dope, left-wing knob, etc. But slamming him for his exercise choice seems more than a bit peurile.
Assuming you believe Kerry should have Amy office of trust or profit in the United States government, it was objectively not a great idea to put himself in the way of this.
Cycling is a perfectly age appropriate sport for Kerry. He's not new to the sport, and it's good exercise.
That said, he broke his hip on a Tour de France descent, by hitting the curb. That indicates he's going too freaking fast -- you hit a curb when your turns are too wide, because you have too much speed. So there's a very good argument that he's being too reckless on a dangerous and unfamiliar route.
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