A little mini-catnip from '04 -- small interview with THK

[beachmom]

I was tooling around and got a link to this article from a right wing blog (they are often good sources to news links). If you go to the link, you will see that the columnist is a very pretty lady. Here's her very brief exchange with Teresa:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002056306_brodeur07m.html

That settled, I was off to Bellevue, where Teresa Heinz Kerry was speaking at the Eastgate Public Health Center — and where I got five minutes to get personal.

If I was 80 cents short at the grocery store, and John Kerry was behind me in line, would he cover me, or pity me?

"Before me, he probably would have asked you out for a cup of coffee and paid the bill," Heinz Kerry said. "Today, I don't know what he would do, he doesn't even go shopping anymore, the poor guy."

Would he help if my car was broken down on the side of the road?

"Sure. He volunteered to go to war. That shows a sense of being aware of his place in the world."

How does he snap you out of a bad mood?

"He probably prays that he didn't get me into it. He's always an optimist and tells me it's gonna be OK. In that sense, he's very much a man. He doesn't go into those places where women sometimes go."

That's why you gotta love Teresa Heinz Kerry. She always tells it like it is!

[karynnj]

1. That is so cute

The absolutely honest, impolitical answers - give huge credibility to the others. The first answer is funny.

[sandnsea]

2. Have to dis the columnist

I find it amusing that she complains about not being taken seriously by the Republicans, then turns around and dishes up this fluff on Teresa just a month before the election. Not that I don't love it, but is this really the best a journalist who has 5 minutes with Teresa can think to ask?

[whometense]

3. My inner feminist agrees with sandnsea,

but this made me laugh - I love THK's playful side, and wonder at the lengths so many journalists went to in order to keep it hidden from the public.

[beachmom]

4. Okay, you guys are not going to like me for saying this, but

Teresa wasn't running for president -- her husband was. Metaphorically speaking, let's imagine that you go out to dinner with your husband and his boss and wife. What are you "the wife" going to talk about -- light things. I was on such a dinner and I spent the entire dinner talking to the boss's wife talking "small", very small. This was not for my career, it was for my husband's, so I didn't care to be thought of in any way other than the wife. I have my own outlets to give me a sense of worth and importance than trying to impress my husband's boss.

I actually agree with Kerry's late ex-wife on her role in his elections -- what does the wife have to with it? So I don't think it's an affront to feminism to ask the wife of the person who's running for president a couple of personal questions. It goes to character -- is this person a good man? Well, see what the wife says . . .

I admire THK very much with the work she does, but for the average American, they were only interested in her as "the wife".

[TayTay]

5. Actually, I liked her answer

It fit the question. I bet she was asked way, way dumber things than this. I like her answer. It shows that the good MA sen did not want for female companionship before he met his wife (and the implied lightness that he needs it not after because, ahm, she is there, LOL. What a neat way to bring this up. Kudos THK, just kudos.)

I liked this. Not every interview is about war and peace, life and death. Some questions are about, 'What's your Favorite Flower?' and that's okay, as long as it's not all you're asked.

[beachmom]

6. Agree completely. It made me smile, and it's why I posted it. nt

[Democrafty]

7. No, you're right. As THK likes to point out, she has never

been elected to anything. It's not a feminist issue - she shouldn't be authoring policy.

[whometense]

8. I think you guys misunderstood me.

I wasn't getting on THK for that comment. I loved her comment - thought it was charming and funny.

[TayTay]

9. I thought you did too!

I thought we were agreeing on that.

That was a great comment. I really like that woman.

[whometense]

10. Ok, good -

I'm not sure how to interpret the reactions to the word "feminist."

I think there's a real generation gap on the interpretation of what that word means. It's funny: back in the day I never considered myself much of a feminist. I mean, I was a turncoat-to-the-cause stay-at-home-mom, for god's sake.

But HRC is making me feel really cranky these days, with her neo-feminism-as-convenient. Some serious women put serious effort into trying to make the world a better place for women, and they made some real progress. It pisses me off to see her using the gains to gain her own ends (becoming the first woman president?) while using her husband's clout to get there. I'm sure many think that's just clever politics on her part, and maybe it is. But it's not particularly worthy, in my book. She supposedly was a feminist when it was cool - she seems quite happy to renounce it now that it's politically inconvenient.

[beachmom]

11. Actually, I'm with you on feminism. I don't have a clue what it means

anymore either. Maybe some female guru will come along and clear that one up.

[Democrafty]

12. Oh, I know what you mean.

In this case, the questions didn't bother me too much, since I feel like they were sort of asked an presented in good faith - she wanted to "get personal." Fine.

But I understand your reaction. In '04, there were a lot of people asking THK her opinion on policy matters, and then reporting that she was "opinionated." IMO, that's a bait and switch, and yes, it's sexist.

[sandnsea]

14. It was 5 minutes, not dinner

A journalist is not an employee's wife, and neither is Teresa.

I didn't say anything about Teresa and her role in regards to policy.

I pointed out how ironic it was for the journalist to complain about not being taken seriously in her work when she uses her 5 minutes in such a poor manner. She doesn't have to ask anything about policy in order to ask something of import with regards to Teresa's charitable work, moments that have informed her view of the country, if she had given thought to a particular cause she might focus on as First Lady, a host of things that people are accustomed to knowing about their First Ladies. Fluff is fun, but it can't be the entirety of a column on a potential First Lady.

There was a time when we expected First Ladies to have an occasional opinion, Betty Ford actually did change the tone on that. I guess Laura Bush changed it back when we weren't looking. It was refreshing to hear Betty Ford saying it wouldn't surprise her if her daughter were having sex, Laura would choke if someone asked her about her sex. Listening to snippets of interviews, it's stunning how prudish this country has become. Betty Ford would be eviscerated in today's atmosphere. And yes that absolutely does have to do with letting up on feminist issues, we can see where sexual repression leads just by looking across the ocean.

[BlueIris]

13. Hee. That is a great interview. nt