[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Out of Africa

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Out of Africa

July 18, 2004
 By MAUREEN DOWD 



 

LOS ANGELES - As Republicans on the East Coast fret about
Dick Cheney acting bonkers, Democrats on the West Coast
fret about Teresa Heinz Kerry acting flaky. 

It would be an act of simple courtesy to the world for Mr.
Cheney to get off the ticket, since he has already done as
much damage as humanly possible in four years. 

But the Bushes always stick to their bad but deferential
vice-presidential choices. John McCain, Colin Powell or
Rudy Giuliani would be way too threatening for W. So now we
have to watch the nauseating spectacle of Senator McCain
pumping up the potty-mouthed Darth Vader's campaign
rallies: "I'm honored to introduce to you the indispensable
and very debonair vice president" and "deputy commander in
chief." 

Just as you never know what the Strangelovian Mr. Cheney
will blurt out, you never know what the lovely but strange
Mrs. Kerry will blurt out. 

With Mr. Kerry at her side, she gave her Middle East policy
to Larry King, emphatically noting, "I would never have
gone to war this way." 

And campaigning in Boston, her compliment for the new
ticket was backhanded. "I have to say that John Edwards is
very beautiful," she said in her soft accent, adding, "and
my husband is very smart." Welcome to the campaign, pretty
boy. 

After watching Mrs. Kerry in action at last month's
Hollywood fund-raiser featuring Barbra Streisand and other
glitteries, when she gave her whispery Out-of-Africa
autobiographical riff as the candidate waited patiently,
entertainment liberals are nervous about how she will
handle her unusual spousal star turn in a prime-time
speaking slot at the convention. 

Even in a place where everyone is constantly reinventing,
people are a little stunned at the way Teresa casts herself
as a "third worlder" and "daughter of Africa," a
wretched-refuse-of-your-teeming-shore sort of immigrant
rather than a "White Mischief" émigré, the daughter of a
prosperous Portuguese doctor in colonial Mozambique who met
John Heinz when they were studying in Switzerland. When
Mrs. Kerry presents herself as an African-American or says,
"I'm an immigrant, too," and when her son Chris Heinz says
he's looking forward to the day when there is a
"first-generation American" in the White House, it doesn't
always strike the empathetic chord with Hispanic and black
audiences that the campaign hopes for. 

Some Hollywood contributors want to censor any Teresa
tidbits, including any mention of her nickname among some
in the Kerry circle - "the Stepmoney." Others sanguinely
say she's showing some improvement, not talking about her
first husband as much as she used to. 

Surely, the reason the town known as the Democratic Party's
wallet is so focused on the candidate's spouse is that the
candidate himself has given it nothing to get excited
about. People here are amazed that John Kerry does not even
have a soaring stump speech yet, either in terms of the arc
or music of the words, or the passion of the ideas. John 2
came up with the theme of two Americas in the primaries,
and John 1 still hasn't articulated his vision for one. 

Usually, it's President Bush and Mr. Cheney who engender
the feeling of, "Just how stupid do they think we are?" But
last week, it was the Kerry campaign, which tried to make
the claim that Hillary Clinton preferred a silent cameo in
a non-prime-time chorus line of female Democratic senators
to a top speaking slot. 

"Senator Clinton, along with all the other women senators -
I think nine of them in the Democratic Party," Tad Devine
told Judy Woodruff Thursday on CNN, "agreed that they
wanted to appear and speak together and ask Senator
Mikulski, the senior member, to speak on their behalf." 

And I am Marie of Romania. 

It's understandable that Mr.
Kerry, who is already losing the competition for the
spotlight with Teresa, would not want to hand the
microphone to Hillary. But if he thought he could really
treat Hillary like a junior senator and get away with it,
he's as delusional as Paul Wolfowitz. 

His campaign squandered the lead-up to the convention
trying to justify the inexplicable and inescapable - when
it wasn't wondering if it could also somehow keep Jimmy
Carter out of prime time. 

Hillary did what she does best. She brought the leader of
the party to heel. And in giving her a prime-time slot, but
only to introduce her husband, Mr. Kerry did what he does
worst: Try to have it both ways.    

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/18/opinion/18DOWD.html?ex=1091175605&ei=1&en=fdb3d18b6635cc99


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