Reply #106: From a New Yorker profile

[LittleClarkie]

"Kerry has never been the most sociable fellow. He grew up lonely: his father was a foreign-service officer who was rarely home; his mother was a member of the aristocratic Forbes family—they made their fortune in the China trade—but she was one of eleven siblings and the fortune had been subdivided into insignificance by the time John Kerry’s generation came along. He was brought up among the wealthy, but his was a threadbare, erstwhile aristocracy. There were many houses, most of them other people’s houses: in Brittany (a Forbes family estate, where his mother had spent much of her youth); on Naushon Island, just off Cape Cod (another Forbes retreat); in Washington; in Groton, Massachusetts. He had been sent to boarding school in Switzerland, and hated it (he speaks fluent French and some Italian). He was then sent to boarding school in the United States, to St. Paul’s, in Concord, New Hampshire. He was one of a handful of Catholic students; they were sent to Mass on Sunday in a taxi."

Actually, he went away to school because of a rich maiden aunt. There was money in the family, but Kerry's wing of it was fairly middle class, if upper middle. He certainly had a more pedestrian upbringing than Bush.

Even now, most of the money belongs to Teresa. She owns something like 5 houses. He owns one with her that he had to mortgage for the campaign. I believe they even have a prenup that separates her money from his.

Point two: Share the failure. The negativity didn't help. Not only did we need a reason not to vote for Bush. We needed a reason to vote for Kerry. The lesson: don't try to support candidates you don't really support. We were in this campaign together, not just Kerry.

Point three: what is up with the anti-rich bias. So what? So freakin' what? And...?

And as for being from an aristocratic family, I've been told that about my family. We came over with the Huguenots. My family owned the warehouse that was turned into Libby Prison. Big deal. I ain't got squat.

Lastly, unless you've actually checked out the man's history yourself, and the way you're talking I can tell you haven't, I wouldn't shoot down others who have and are trying to clue you in. They and I are pulling things from his biography, and you're just saying "yeah right." It makes you look like a militantly ignorant uniformed ass.

He has not always been rich. He acts the way he acts more because he was sent away to school and learned to guard his feelings than because he's some sort of aristocrat.