Posted on 10/20/2004 6:50:38 PM PDT by NCjim
Senator John Kerry's wife reinforced her reputation as a political loose cannon yesterday when she said President George W Bush's wife, Laura, had never had a real job.
Teresa Heinz Kerry appeared not only to make the politically hazardous move of disdaining the role of a stay-at-home mother, but also to forget that Mrs Bush was a teacher and librarian.
Her unguarded remark in the USA Today newspaper risks infuriating suburban housewives, the "swing" constituency her husband has spent the past fortnight wooing from Mr Bush.
Asked how she would be different from Mrs Bush, she said: "I don't know that she's ever had a real job. Her experience and validation come from important things, but different things."
To make the slightest of side swipes at Mrs Bush is hugely risky as she is wildly popular in America, with her appeal spanning party lines. Karen Hughes, Mr Bush's image maker, said: "Teaching is a real job. Working as a librarian is a real job. Staying at home and rearing a family is a real job."
In a statement last night Mrs Heinz Kerry said she honoured and appreciated Mrs Bush's service as First Lady and was "sincerely sorry" she had not remembered her "important work in the past".
Mrs Heinz Kerry is one of the wealthiest women in America. Her first husband, who died in a plane crash more than a decade ago, was the Republican senator John Heinz, the heir to the beans fortune.
She has long been known for her outspoken ways, to the delight of the grassroots, but to the dismay of the party machine.
With polls flickering back and forth yesterday, President George W Bush and Senator John Kerry rampaged across the same small patch of the heartland yesterday, seemingly trying to outdo each other in alarming voters.
Taking advantage of the sudden onset of wintry weather and a rash of colds, the Democrat seized on the shortage of flu vaccines to accuse Mr Bush of failing to protect the electorate from either war or disease.
"If you can't get flu vaccines to Americans, how are you going to protect them against bio-terrorism?" Mr Kerry asked in an interview with National Public Radio.
Mr Bush accused Mr Kerry of "old-style scare tactics".
But the most chilling sound-bite was from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who warned a rally in Ohio, the "Ground Zero" of the election, that terrorists could bomb an American town with a nuclear device, and suggested that Mr Kerry was not the man to counter such an attack.
The Democrats accused him of waging the politics of fear before promptly unleashing their advertisements and attacks which suggested that Mr Bush's leadership has made America more vulnerable, not safer.
In Iowa, a state Mr Bush narrowly lost in 2000, Mr Kerry made a direct appeal to the emotions of America's women, a normally reliable Democrat constituency which he has had difficulties wooing in the face of Mr Bush's emotive campaigning style and fears over terrorism.
"No American mother should have to lie awake at night worrying whether her children will be safe at school the next day," he said.
Simultaneously Mr Bush was addressing a rally 80 miles away, in Iowa, where polls show the candidates neck-and-neck at 47 per cent.
In the American media there was a unanimous conclusion about the spate of scaremongering: Halloween has come 10 days early.
Either that or she is just plain low-class white trash.
Kerry's wife is a real class act. It's hard to buy such anti-publicity for the Kerry campaign. Her remarks ought to move a good 5 or 10 points of undecideds into the Bush camp.
Surely Kerry could have found a classier and prettier heiress than Teresa... someone who is truly endowed in all the various dimensions.
Teresa has turned into a real asset for the Republicans with her lose cannon mouth.
Hoppy
Sorry if I caused you any distress. THe Old Man is gone now and we're stuck with sKerry.
Mmmmmm, supper!
She don't need no steeeeenkin' blue pills, bubman.
Tar-Ayyyy-Zah's handlers keep a clear cylinder of water and glitter in their pockets. When Tar-Ayyyy-Zah starts acting up. They shake it up in front of her eyes.
It holds her attention while the sparkles have a soothing effect.
Jack.
...whereas, he probably committed suicide by airplane rather than go home to her one more time!
DING DING DING!
Eurohag descibes her perfectly!
Since I unashamedly come from poor white/red trash myself, it is very easy to spot true class, the USA version, when it appears.
The Bush family has it.
The married into Heinz money/Kerry family does not.
My hero's have always been cowboys...
The only difference betweeen a rich cowboy and a poor one is the price of the wine he seduces you with....
LOL!
Loose cannon, for sure.
http://www.asjewelers.com/FRstuff/7/I_have_a_plan.wmv
This woman is a bonafide nut case.
No more wire hangers!
But not richer.
Cute.=o)
You want to get to Barney first, right?? : )
You want to get to Barney first, right?? : )
Not sure I catch your drift on that one.
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