the problem is that part of the Mainstream Media doesn't know the difference; another good part understands too well but believes that politics is all about framing (underlying meaning doesn't matter...it's just all a game of power-play deconstruction & construction).
In a postmodern universe, kerry can thereby keep his own meaning of what he defacto wants the arrangement of those words to mean, and the media can tout he "apologized" 'cause it sounds close enough to what it was--an apologetic.
"That depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."
-- bill clinton aka "The Wizard of Is"