politics

A Not-So-Babe in the Woods

July 15, 2004

Seems like just yesterday that the media was fretting over the burning question: Teresa Heinz Kerry, political asset or ticking time bomb? Outlets all over the country had a field day with that one.

No more. As Jodi Wilgoren reports in today’s New York Times, Heinz Kerry obviously has earned her frequent flier miles. “[T]he Mozambique-born heiress who speaks five languages and says what she thinks when she thinks it” spent 20 days during June out on the campaign trail by herself, and, by and large she was a big hit.

Curses – another non-story turns out to be non-true. What can we dream up now to fill the summer newshole?

We think we see it coming. Can Vice Presidential contender John Edwards fly solo? Wilgoren’s colleague Sheryl Gay Stolberg asks that non-question today, starting off with a lead that makes Edwards sound like a six-year-old off to his first day of school. “Mr. Edwards is still very much feeling his way in his solo debut,” intones Stolberg. And she wasn’t alone in raising the image of Edwards as naif.

Isn’t this the same guy who campaigned relentlessly through 30 states all through the primary and caucus season? Who won over audience after audience for six months running?

The Oooh, Little Johnny Edwards Is Out on His Own! storyline is about as original as the one that initially portrayed Teresa as a loose cannon on the deck of a ship pitching in a storm.

Sign up for CJR's daily email

Let’s hope its life is even shorter.

–Susan Q. Stranahan

Susan Q. Stranahan wrote for CJR.