Posted on 07/17/2004 11:36:42 PM PDT by Liz
She says what she thinks -- and Seattle will get a taste of that during visit
Jodi Wilgoren NY TIMES
BOSTON -- But for the microphone, Teresa Heinz Kerry could have been gossiping with the girlfriends she takes with her on her private jet while campaigning solo across the country.
"When you get married when you're older, it's not the same as when you get married when you're a young little thing," Heinz Kerry confided to a mostly female crowd of 1,400 here the other day; all wink and nod. "It's better, and it's not the same."
A few hours later, on another stage, she had more to share. "I have to say that John Edwards is very beautiful," she said in her trademark stage whisper, as a ripple of giggles spread across the crowd of 5,000 at a fund-raising concert. "And my husband is very smart."
For all the talk about the new political partner Kerry picked in Edwards on July 6, the past week has also been a showcase for the partner he has had for the past nine years, the woman who sometimes stole the spotlight as she -- and her eight hanging bags of pantsuits -- traveled by his side. There was Heinz Kerry, fielding foreign policy questions on CNN's "Larry King Live." That was her reaching across the dual family portrait to dislodge the thumb from the mouth of Edwards' young son, Jack. Watch her dancing onstage after rallies, nuzzling Kerry while others speak, grabbing, somewhat awkwardly, for his hand.
And today and tomorrow, Heinz Kerry will be in Seattle. She'll speak about health care at Fred Hutchinson today and appear at a fund-raiser tomorrow at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Neither event is open to the public.
On the campaign trail, Heinz Kerry has been far from conventional. There are the surprises that spring from her mouth, like the one about how women mind the details like dates, while "the guys think about big things," or how she and Elizabeth Edwards plan to keep the candidates "honest," or how the word "values," the new theme of the Democrats' campaign, "has kind of been loaded one way or the other."
"I have a certain kind of sense of humor, but it's not necessarily other people's sense of humor, so I have to get used to other people's sense of humor as well," Heinz Kerry, 65, confided at the luncheon here. "I had initial doubts about my ability to be a good partner in this campaign, whether or not I would hurt, whether or not I would help, whether youth and strength was better than age and wisdom," she continued. "And I am completely convinced that age and wisdom wins every time."
From the onset of Kerry's campaign, some Democrats have worried about Heinz Kerry, the Mozambique-born heiress who speaks five languages and says what she thinks, when she thinks it. But Kerry and his aides seem now to revel in letting her be herself, and she has been on the road relentlessly since September.
In June, Heinz Kerry campaigned alone 20 days, with her husband two; this week was the first time she had been to her home in Boston (to be fair, she has four others) in three months. At joint appearances, Heinz Kerry goes beyond the typical spousal cheerleading to give longer, free-wheeling remarks. On the campaign plane, Heinz Kerry, in large, dark sunglasses and toting a glass of wine -- in the afternoon, a spritzer -- is often the first to venture into the reporters' cabin.
Later this month, like Laura Bush in 2000, Heinz Kerry will give a prime-time speech at the national political convention nominating her husband.
"She has a different style; it's not the conventional you-get-three-minutes-to-introduce," said Ann Lewis, the White House communications director in the Clinton administration who is now national chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Women's Vote Center. "Teresa can talk to large political crowds the way women who are just getting to know each other talk at a neighborhood meeting."
It seems to work, at least among audiences at high-dollar fund-raisers where many of the women share her fondness for Chanel shoes and silk scarves. "We'd vote for her in a heartbeat," said Jean Verbridge of Marblehead, Mass., an interior designer who is part of a Republican women for Kerry group. "She needs to be out more. I felt like she was being cloistered before."
Heinz Kerry's regular riff, sometimes hard to hear in her accented hush, describes growing up in a dictatorship, not seeing her doctor father vote until he was 71, marching against apartheid while attending university in South Africa in the 1950s and longing for the days when "the face of America abroad was that of a Peace Corps volunteer." About half of her solo events are geared toward women, focusing on child care, health care, the environment -- issues she knows through her work at the United Nations and the foundation named for her first husband, Sen. H. John Heinz, a Pennsylvania Republican who was killed in a plane crash in 1991.
Then there are those unscripted lines.
"You can talk to the simplest person about any issue," she told the women in Boston, seemingly unaware that the people she was referring to might not appreciate that description. To a crowd of 3,200 in New York a few days before, she exulted, "Women for Kerry need birth control, you've gotten so huge," then went on to say, of her sex, "It's time that we who clean up should have a say in how the dirt should be made."
"It is long overdue that the opinions and knowledge of women be part of the governance of the world," she told a huge rally in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday afternoon, just after saying that she and Elizabeth Edwards were counting down days to the election so their spouses could think big thoughts. "And I hope that at the end of this campaign and from next year on, no woman who ever ventures to give an opinion be called opinionated, and that instead she be called smart, thoughtful, or well-informed -- all of it, just like men.
"We have to cherish women, their health, their wellness," she added, "because a home without a healthy mother or wife is an unwell home."
OMG, imagine this one in the White House? As an airhead and as a liberal (same thing) this woman sees no problem with making these riidiculous comments.
Yeah, just what are her Republican credentials? She's a rich snob? Sounds more like a Democrat to me. RINO
A Republican? In Massachusetts? Atwitter over Teresa?
Must be something in the Mass water.
More like Alice in Wonderland's lunatic Red Queen.
"I'd rather have my husband alive than that money." Teresa Kerry-Heinz
I wonder what her current husband has to say about that.
Maybe she is really telling us that John F'in is dead.
Imagine her embarrassing us in foreign countries.
Heheh........well, maybe he's half-dead. LOL.
She's apparently been debriefed and is on her---gag---best behavior now. Imagine, if elected, when she's let loose?
Say what?
Of course she calls herself and/or she is called Teresa Heinz Kerry...what if Kerry died? And she married me, would she call herself Teresa Heinz Kerry Positive?
My point is that Heinz is her late husband's last name. What was her maiden name when she came from Mozambique or wherever?
She is an odd woman and her background may be very odd.
"because a home without a healthy mother or wife is an unwell home."
Did Teresa Heinz "Billionaire" Kerry really say this? Isn't this being hateful to our gay friends? I thought the Dems always tell us that two Dads are just as good as a Mom and a Dad for raising kids.
"It is long overdue that the opinions and knowledge of women be part of the governance of the world,"
Hey Mrs. Heinz-Kerry, have you ever heard of the National Security Advisor to the President, Ms. Condelleza Rice?
Is she on drugs?
All I can say is, she most have been one very love starved, and desperate woman to have hooked up with the ,"Opportunist. The things that people will do for money. God Bless America and all the Real Americans on the Free Republic site. Remember Flight UA 93, and the brave men and women who took the fight to those POS and won.Bush/Cheney 2004
Elizabeth better watch out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.