Regardless of what he actually said, I believe he was trying to criticize Bush and not our troops because as a Vietnam veteran himself he knows what it's like to be in the military fighting an unpopular war.

Like it or not, I also believe there is a bit of truth behind the suggestion of our troops not being that smart. The officer ranks are smart and well educated because they're college grads but the enlisted are usually just high school grads at best. I spent 4 years in the Army during the first gulf war and I was in the enlisted ranks as well but even with the highly technical job and training I went through, a lot of the people I was stationed with were just dumbasses. My college buddies on the other hand were a lot different. Of course if I was a politician I would never say that.

Media is not one sided. Every media company affiliates itself with a specific party. I used the example of FOX and ABC because it's widely known that FOX is republican and ABC is democrat. Not sure of the other big networks. It's also true that most big city newspapers affiliate themselves with democrats and smaller town newspapers tend to lean towards republicans.