It might seem a bit presumptuous for a woman who has had to occasionally “bleg” to feel sorry for a billionaire, but I do feel sorry for Teresa Heinz Kerry.
Her first husband, Senator John Heinz, died a fiery, horrifying death. It’s very obvious that she loved the guy.
Her late husband’s friend, Senator John Kerry, comes to her emotional rescue and marries her, but he’s not the man her husband was. Then her second husband does something that—from appearances—she really doesn’t want him to do: run for president.
In that run, Mrs. Kerry has to be constantly inundated with the reminder of what she has lost, personified by her husband’s opponent and his wife: a man and a woman who obviously love each other.
Could the pain of that loss be the origin of this statement?
Well, you know, I don't know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good. But I don't know that she's ever had a real job — I mean, since she's been grown up. So her experience and her validation comes [sic] from important things, but different things. And I'm older, and my validation of what I do and what I believe and my experience is a little bit bigger — because I'm older, and I've had different experiences. And it's not a criticism of her. It's just, you know, what life is about.Apparently Mrs. Kerry forgot or did not know that Mrs. Bush was employed in the decade before her marriage as a school teacher and a librarian. The former apologizes later for the oversight.
What got me about the first statement was the lack of decorum and graciousness for a woman with which she should have no beef and is nearly universally loved and/or admired, even by those who hate George W. Bush. (At most, Mrs. Bush’s genteel demeanor—typical of Southern women—is mocked as Stepford-like.)
Mrs. Bush has what I suspect that Mrs. Kerry once had, but has no more. Mrs. Kerry once said this about her late husband:
I'd rather have my husband alive than that money.(Reading that, I feel some sympathy for Senator Kerry as well. Of course it would be easy to speculate on the senator’s deficiencies as a husband here, but not today. What man could live up to the memory of a much-loved dead man?)
For all her billions, Mrs. Kerry can’t bring back the man, who, from her own and all other accounts, was the love of her life. And she knows that.
Is she envious of Mrs. Bush? I don’t know, but I do suspect that Mrs. Kerry has a hard time watching the Bushes interact with each other. I suspect that--during the third presidential debate--she had an even harder time listening to the president talk about falling in love with his wife, while her own husband sang the praises of his mother.
Many commentators were appalled at the uninformed statements, probably including Senator Kerry himself (ironically). But it sounded like a cry of unhappiness to me and it’s painful to watch.
/amateur shrinkage off
