[maggief]

OOOPS!

March 11, 2004
'We are out there as a team'
With different styles, John Kerry's daughters take his message to young voters

Boston Globe

By Bella English

..."Did my sister tell you the hamster story?" Alex asks. When the girls were young and at the shore, their "incredibly overzealous golden retriever" knocked their hamster cage off the dock. Down into the depths went the cage, with Licorice the hamster inside. Their father jumped into a rowboat and fished the cage out of the water with an oar. "I have a very distinctive image of my father trying to resuscitate the hamster," Alex says, laughing. "He put his finger on its [chest] and revived him. Licorice came back to life, but he didn't function the same way as before the swim."...


http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/news/news_2004_0311c.html

[maggief]

This story gets more colorful the more it's told, just like his Viet Nam record. Below an excerpt from today's NYT and an older story from the Dallas Morning News. Compare both to the 3/11/04 Boston Globe version. First account says he "grabbed an oar", next account he "jumped into a rowboat", and now the NYTimes state "The man known for pulling a drowning soldier from the Mekong River in the Vietnam War had also dived off a dock to save a hamster."

...The man known for pulling a drowning soldier from the Mekong River in the Vietnam War had also dived off a dock to save a hamster named Licorice from what the elder sister, Alexandra, called "a watery doom," even administering CPR. ...

http://nytimes.com/2004/07/30/politics/campaign/30scene.html

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Can Kerry cut it in cult of personality?

Liability or asset, Democratic hopeful's cool demeanor critical in race, analysts say

09:02 AM CST on Monday, February 23, 2004

By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News

...Long before Mr. Kerry ran for president, his daughter Vanessa, 6 or 7 at the time, took her pet rodent on a family vacation that also involved a boat and a big dog. When they pulled into dock, the dog got so excited that its tail knocked the hamster cage overboard. That's when dad – decorated with a Silver Star for dragging a Green Beret out of a river – sprung into action, grabbing an oar and fishing Licorice out.

"He literally managed to do CPR on this hamster and bring him back to life," Ms. Kerry recalled.

"And seeing him do mouth-to-mouth on the hamster ..., " said older sister Alexandra.

"He did not do mouth-to-mouth, he did heart compressions!" Vanessa said. The third-year medical student could barely control her laughter.

The ending, alas, is unhappy. Back home in his cage, Alexandra said, Licorice "would sit on the wheel for hours and hours." ...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/022304dnpollicorice.20f43.html