Reply #7: I think that what he was trying to do was difficult

[karynnj]

Kerry doesn't fit neatly into any template. He is brilliant with extremely broad interests - motor cycles and athletics and poetry and religion. He is far more vibrant than virtually anyone else. It is far easier to describe his work as a Senator - though that is a range of contrasts as well - from brave investigations to eloquent speeches to the competent detail of the fishery sub committee or the Finance committee.

His descriptions of things he actually saw are fascinating. We all could picture him dancing with the toddler and picture the toddler hugging him - less so the Senator being startled by it. The image of the nearly 60 year old Senator sliding down the banister is startling, but if you were told an unnamed US Senator did this, he would likely be one of the suspects in this group. The main image you get is a very alive intense person moving faster physically and mentally than those around him. His awareness of nature and the world around him comes through. As does a certain unrestrained character.

But, woven around what he observed is all the stereotypes we are familiar with - some adequately debunked - like the throwing the medals nonsense. Others, especially the way his marriage is described are added with no balance at all. It is completely insulting to the brilliant, beautiful, incredible Teresa Heinz, not to mention to Kerry. I wish the guy who said that he hoped we wouldn't look for Presidents based on bowling was right - he was in 2008. (He also exaggerates on Kerry's preference for sports where is alone - as he was on many team sports in college. That he still played occasion hockey and did cycle with others, likely puts him ahead of other Senators in number of group sports currently done. Also, he didn't windsurf alone.)

The odd thing is that he ends with the man drinking beer in the bar, who says this is not the Kerry he knew and that he must be running. This echoes all the things he quotes from sources like the Lowell Sun. My question is that he then says Kerry left. The reporter was still there. What would have been interesting is if he had asked the man at that point - the question he later wrote - did he really know the Senator. The answer, which I would bet was no, would have been interesting and would have changed how the story read. What is amazing to me is that nearly all first hand stories on the Senator are 180 degrees at odds with the stereotype, yet it still lives. This is one of the few articles that gives first hand observations intermingled with the stereotypes. I am surprised that he threw away the opportunity to ask the man the question he later writes.