If you have been reading through this paper, you may have noticed that several of the articles have been about John Kerry’s visit to Bowling Green. You’ve read about his speech, the Edwards, the supporters, the protesters, John Glenn and Dennis Kucinich. BG News has done a great job of covering the story from every angle.
But if you’re like me, you may be sick of hearing about John Kerry’s visit, and how lucky our area was to have him grace the corner of Main and Court. So let’s talk about someone who wasn’t there–his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.
First of all, she has only been a Kerry for the past 18 months. Sure, they have been married since 1995, but she hadn’t taken his name until, oddly enough, around the time Kerry’s campaign started.
Why wasn’t Teresa in BG to support her husband? Those who came out to see Kerry speak were told that she was staying with a sick family member. Wow! That conveniently goes along with The Kerrys’ family values makeover. It also softens her image a bit.
Teresa Heinz Kerry has been described by the media as a “strong” woman–especially since she told a reporter to “shove it” recently. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this incident, it is quite funny.
In a speech calling for a more civil tone in politics in Boston, she said, “We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into our politics.” When the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staffer, Colin McNickle, asked Heinz Kerry to clarify what she meant by “un-American,” she denied ever saying it. “You said something I didn’t say. Now shove it!” And for this statement, she was described as “strong?”
I wouldn’t be so sure that the incident showed Teresa to be a “strong” woman. What does that actually mean anyway? Can she bench press more than the average woman? We all know that isn’t what the media means when they use that word to describe her. It’s just a classic case of a euphemism. What they essentially mean by “strong” is bitchy.
How was it “strong” for Heinz Kerry to lose her temper with a reporter anyway? Wouldn’t it have shown her to have a stronger character if she would have just sucked it up and clarified what she said, rather than just flat out denying it? I suppose since she has seen her husband get away with the flip-flops time and time again, she learned by observation that she could say one thing, and then the opposite moments later.
Heinz Kerry’s “shove it” remark threatens the ideals of journalism majors. According to the “Editor ‘ Publisher” journal, McNickle has been harassed by Teresa’s left-wing friends, such as singer Patti Labelle and filmmaker Michael Moore. He says he has received hate mail and death threats as well–all for doing the job of a reporter: clarifying, when possible, an unclear quote.
Being “feisty” as some may prefer to call Teresa’s behavior, might be admirable to some, but is that a quality the American people would like to see in the First Lady? Generally speaking, I don’t think the mother of the country should be one that goes around telling people to “shove it.” I can’t imagine Laura Bush ever doing that.
You may argue that a presidential election shouldn’t have anything to do with whom the candidate is married to. But I would argue that if the marriage is a strong one, the spouse is going to be the most influential to the president, even before the vice president.
This is a scary notion when it comes to John Kerry, because the actions of his wife’s family go against one of his biggest platforms. Kerry says he is for keeping jobs in America and is against outsourcing, accusing Bush of doing this. But Bush couldn’t have moved one U.S. corporation into a foreign country, because he doesn’t own any! On the other hand, his own wife is an owner of the multi-billion dollar Heinz company. It is ironic that the next time you use Heinz sliced pickles, you can look at the label, and it will say “Made in Mexico.”
Wanting to see just how much of the Heinz corporation is run in other countries I went to www.Heinz.com. It was funny that I could prompt the site to offer the Heinz information in 11 languages, but I couldn’t seem to find all the corporate locations. What I did find was a disclaimer that elusively said, “The company maintains a number of overseas facilities that provide products for the consumers in those markets. This allows Heinz to pack the freshest ingredients…” A number? Why not give that number?
That’s because the number is 102! Sadly, I had to get the truth from www.rushonline.com. This prompted me to some 2001-2002 Heinz website pages which can be found at www.heinz.com/di/corp_pro2002/corpProfile3.jsp. Keep clicking forward and you will find that only 24 of the 126 Heinz corporate sites are located in the U.S. The remaining 102 are outside of the U.S. Do you think they will follow their platform and move those jobs back here? Don’t count on it.
According to the “Times of India,” Teresa Heinz Kerry’s outsourcing business ventures don’t end there. “Trusts held by Teresa hold at least $8.5 million in outsourcing companies.” So how against outsourcing are they really? Think she would be willing to give up that $8.5 million? Not likely, although that would be “strong” of her.
So how “strong” really is Teresa Heinz Kerry? I’ll give that she is a “strong” liar and a “strong” slick businesswoman.
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