A Tangled Web

FOOT IN MOUTH DISEASE.



Ter-RAY-za Kerry gave me the biggest laugh of the day.



In an interview with USA Today she said, :



"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."



As Powerline points out, "This was an astonishingly stupid thing to say, as it gratuitously offended tens of millions of American women (and some men, too). So Teresa hastened to make amends:



"I had forgotten that Mrs. Bush had worked as a school teacher and librarian, and there couldn't be a more important job than teaching our children. As someone who has been both a full-time mom and full-time in work force, I know we all have valuable experiences that shape who we are. I appreciate and honor Mrs. Bush's service to the country as first lady and am sincerely sorry I had not remembered her important work in the past.



Ms. Heinz's initial blunder was bad enough, but her "correction," being presumably premeditated, was even worse. The problem with the original ciriticism of Mrs. Bush was not that Teresa forgot that she had once been a shoolteacher. The problem was with the assumption that absent that experience, Mrs. Bush had never had a "real job." But that is precisely the error that Teresa's "correction" fails to correct. On the contrary, her regret at forgetting Laura Bush's "important work in the past" merely drives the nail deeper. Until this year, it had never occurred to me that a Presidential candidate's spouse could be an important factor in a campaign. This year, she just might be."