Posted on 11/14/2004 8:19:13 PM PST by Cableguy
Teresa Heinz Kerry hardly suffered from a lack of media attention during the presidential campaign.
But if a lengthy, behind-the-scenes Newsweek piece is on the mark, press accounts failed to reflect the degree to which she was a disruptive force in her husband's campaign who often looked "sullen," was deemed a "hypochondriac" by the staff and had a knack for "silencing a cheering crowd."
"On the campaign bus," Newsweek reports, "there had been constant talk of marital spats between the candidate and his wife. . . . Though they kept Teresa's sometimes erratic behavior out of their copy, when they were speaking among themselves . . . the reporters were increasingly vocal in mocking the candidate's wife."
It is difficult for daily journalists covering a candidate to report on the personal travails and staff infighting that envelop most campaigns. Some reporters who traveled with John Kerry said these stories are hard to pin down because campaign officials refused to discuss such details on the record. Others said it was risky to write stories that would alienate not just the candidate but the staffers on whom reporters depend for news.
"There were hints in the daily coverage that Kerry had problems with being decisive and Teresa was not completely helpful," says Evan Thomas, who wrote the Newsweek article. "But I don't think anybody tried to step back and look at the pattern of it. The press has gotten so consumed with the day-to-day that they've forgotten about or become uninterested in the whole Teddy White approach to reconstruction."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
(President Bush's campaign granted less access and periodically booted Newsweek staffers from its Arlington headquarters)
Sniff...I love this man!
And a lot of men, even if they tend to vote Rat, don't identify with a candidate who's "pursey whipped"!
We cannot really understand Teresa, know where she is at, or comprehend the circle of influence that she enjoys. What really matters is, is she happy in her life? She gave signals throughout the campaign that all is not right with Teresa.
It is easy to think that wealthy people have all kinds of nasty problems due to wealth. Howard Hughes was a good example of that. Teresa Kerry could be giving out signals that she may also, like Hughes, be a victim of her own wealth. The overall picture, however, is that she was simply showing signs of being overwhelmed by the rigors of the campaign. If that is all that it is, it still does not look good because, if she failed to learn how to deal with the pressures of the campaign, she would have had even a worse time if she had became the First Lady. If she is indeed having mental problems, it would have been a disaster in the White House. For that the Press failed in its job and for that we were by God's grace spared the Kerry Presidency.
Uh........... NO FOOLING! We didn't call him the "Flip-Flopper" for NOTHING, ya know!!!!!
All the liberals eat their own. We are seeing it again, this trip around. Love it.
Have a great week.
Exactly. People put together a gestalt of those two and said "I don't think so."
This is SO journalistically and professionally bass-acwards it's not funny.
They GOSSIP amongst themselves when they SHOULDN'T, and they HOLD BACK ON REPORTING what's going on when they should WRITE ABOUT IT.
Presstitutes SICKEN me. They are bottom feeders--no better. NewsweAk is A JOKE.
This is the problem. Evan Thomas was given access in exchange for embargoing his story until after the election. But that's not true of the rest of the press corps. They should really be ashamed of themselves. But they won't be.
What an unmitigated disaster this clown would have been as Commander in Chief!
I'm a relative newbie myself so I would like to ask some of the oldbies...what's a troll?A troll is somebody who posts an outrageous vanity or article just to watch the regular FReepers go nuts about it. Trolls usually just make the post and then high tail it. They rarely hang around to defend their position.
Trolls typically don't last very long around here.
I am absolutely sure that had there been "strife" in the Bush campaign or in the Bush marriage, that the media would have shown similar restraint and would not have reported on it at all...ever, until after the campaign.
I also have a bridge spanning San Diego bay that I can sell you real cheap.
They sure covered his sorry ass didn't they?
and their crumbling credibility is now gone....forever.
Maybe you ought to look up Bob Doles war record.He spent Years and multiple operations just to stay alive - and he's badly crippled -for life...
and his wounds weren't self-inflicted and needed more than a band aid - and he never turned tail and ran under fire, leaving men behind.
when your hero demanded to be sent home after his 3 "wounds" the commanders didn't argue -they were glad to see the back side of him - ah, wasn't that the backside he got one of his wounds in - the rice in the butt from a grenade he threw to close...
Not so fast.
That's my bridge. :)
In an eerie way, he was in many ways like Hitler. Although it's hard to say Hitler didn't rightfully "win" his awards (he was gassed in WW1), but Hitler, like Kerry, used his status as a bona fide wounded war veteran to further his political ambitions.
I agree absolutely. And when kerry took that cheap shot at Dick and Lynn Cheney's daughter during the debate, I believe women all over the country were seething over it. There are very few women who don't see right through that sort of tactic.
Shirley Temple had a sharper salute. When Kerry pulled that "Reporting for duty" caper, all I could think of was "On the Good Ship Lollipop."
According to his biographers, he used it even before he got interested in politics. When he was bumming around Vienna, he showed his iron cross to get free meals and other handouts. Like kerry, there were a lot of things in his past he didn't want known. Unlike kerry, he amassed enough power to destroy all the records and kill off most of the witnesses.
And now they are oh, so cool, because they knew it all along. That's the game. And it's probably why Brokaw got booed in Oklahoma on Saturday.
File for future reference.
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