A look at Kerry's new wife.....
But what happens when the past collides with a current life of luxury? Married to Teresa Heinz, widow of the late Sen. John Heinz and principal heir to a food fortune once estimated at $860 million, John Kerry doesn't live paycheck-to-paycheck, as the visits to Christophe attest. He may have discovered his inner man "in country," but today that he kicks back in urban splendor: a mansion in Georgetown; a six-floor brownstone on Beacon Hill.
It's a striking contradiction — maybe an accident waiting to happen — and it presents at least three challenges for the Democratic candidate.
First, while presidential runs require years of planning, they can instantly implode when the public's first impression of a candidate is that he's not a regular guy. Democrats, in particular, have learned this the hard way. Joe Biden never recovered after he was forced to admit that he had plagiarized Neil Kinnock. Well before Donna Rice, Gary Hart struggled with revelations that he had changed his last name, his handwriting style, and for some creepy reason was mimicking John F. Kennedy by likewise sticking his hand in his jacket flap. In the past election, Al Gore didn't help his chances by shifting from too-tight jeans to earth tones, suits then open-collared shirts. A candidate uncertain of his clothes isn't comfortable in his own skin.
If part of the Kerry strategy is to work the VFW halls of Iowa and New Hampshire, he won't find too many fellow vets who get their hair "styled," much less pay $75 for the experience. Even worse, Christophe ties Kerry directly into the dysfunctional world of Bill and Hillary. It won't take much work for Leno and Letterman to turn that connection into a cavalcade of jokes, or some cartoonist to sketch Kerry and Hillary seated next to each other under hairdryers.
Problem two: Kerry's wife is a source of wealth, and perhaps a myriad of headaches — like Hillary, a source of bad vibes. Last June, the widow Heinz and her husband sat down with the Washington Post. What should have been a flattering profile backfired when Kerry's wife launched into an angry tirade against Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, and made fun of her husband's Vietnam nightmares. Perhaps not coincidentally, Chris Black, a former CNN correspondent and Boston Globe reporter, was soon hired to be Teresa Heinz's media handler. Born in Mozambique, Teresa Heinz speaks five languages. It remains to be seen if she's conversant in the language of a non-controversial candidate's wife.
Problem three: Kerry may be genetically incapable of overcoming problems 1 and 2. He's not the first Democrat to want you to focus on his past. Jack Kennedy rode PT-109 to the White House. Bill Clinton sold America on the image of the humble "Man From Hope" when in fact he grew up in middle-class comfort in the far-tawdrier Hot Springs.
The difference, of course, is Kennedy and Clinton were charmers, whereas Kerry's personality vacillates between gray and grim. As the Washington Post Howard Kurtz writes, "To put it mildly, Kerry has a warmth problem. He recites his positions but doesn't tell any folksy stories, doesn't connect, doesn't seem to be speaking from the heart." Kerry needs to get in touch with Clinton — not for hair-care tips, but to learn how to become a more endearing candidate. Thus he can win the Democrats' first primary: becoming the media's darling.
Of course, the real primaries are more than a year away. That's plenty of time to see if John Kerry's visits to Christophe will cause any lasting damage to his candidacy.
For now, only his hairdresser knows.
— Bill Whalen is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. |
