Naomi Wolf and I agree on something: Teresa is a much bigger drag on the Kerry ticket than anyone is now admitting. Her appalling speech at the DNC did a huge amount to deny Kerry any bounce. Here’s why:
So Laura Bush, in speaking warmly of her mate’s ‘wrestling’ with issues of war and peace, enhances his potency. This does not contradict my earlier point about appealing to swing voters; it has been well established that modern women maddeningly long for men who are tender in private but authoritative in public. Unfortunately, Teresa Heinz Kerry’s speech, which all but ignored her husband, did more to emasculate him than the opposition ever could. By publicly shining the light on herself rather than her husband, she opened a symbolic breach in Kerry’s archetypal armor. Listen to what the Republicans are hitting Kerry with: Indecisive. Effete. French. They are all but calling this tall, accomplished war hero gay.
The charges are sticking because of Teresa Heinz Kerry. Let’s start with ‘Heinz.’ By retaining her dead husband’s name – there is no genteel way to put this – she is publicly, subliminally cuckolding Kerry with the power of another man-a dead Republican man, at that. Add to that the fact that her first husband was (as she is herself now) vastly more wealthy than her second husband. Throw into all of this her penchant for black, a color that no woman wears in the heartland, and you have a recipe for just what Kerry is struggling with now: charges of elitism, unstable family relationships, and an unmanned candidate.
Bingo. Of course, Kerry cannot help the fact that his wife’s a walking embarrassment. But he can keep her waaaay in the background. And pray.
The Dish 