Heinz Kerry rebukes heckler; crowd cheer
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| Mon, 09-27-2004 - 2:10pm |
PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) - A group of 600 Democrats crowded the 4H Auditorium at the State Fairgrounds Friday hoping to see for themselves whether presidential candidate John Kerry's wife was as outspoken and sharp-tongued as some have described her.
Teresa Heinz Kerry delivered for her supporters when she talked back to a heckler who implied her husband's a flip-flopper.
During a question and answer session, a young man demanded to know why Kerry voted to give Bush authority to attack Iraq but voted against an $87 billion appropriation bill to support the war effort there.
"Is that the kind of thing he would do as president?," the man asked.
Heinz Kerry sharply asked the man whether he had read the legislation that was voted on.
When he said no, she told him that Kerry had supported $60 billion in military appropriations for Iraq, but would not vote for the full $87 billion because he considered it a "blank check." Kerry was one of 11 Democrats to vote against the bill.
"And we knew they'd already given Haliburton millions in no-bid contracts," she snapped, referring to the company formerly led by Vice President Dick Cheney.
"If you want to say (Kerry) flip-flopped, just say so, don't try to hide," Heinz Kerry scolded.
The young man responsed with chanting "Four more years!" as he walked out of the auditorium. The partisan crowd's cheer of "Six more weeks!" quickly drowned him out.
Roberto Costales of Canon City liked the way she dealt with her heckler.
"Did you notice how she handled that one guy? I bet she doesn't back down from anybody," he laughed.
In appearances here and before a crowd of 1,700 in Fort Collins, Heinz Kerry echoed her husband's views about terrorism, national security, crime, health care and education.
She said the United States needs a different approach in the world.
"The way we live in peace in a family, in a marriage, in the world, is not by threatening people, is not by showing off your muscles. It's by listening, by giving a hand sometimes, by being intelligent, by being open and by setting high standards," she said at the CSU rally.
In Pueblo, Heinz Kerry sounded a similar theme, criticizing the Bush administration for sending warning signals to Iran about developing nuclear weapons.
"There are about 50 countries in the world that have the capability to build nuclear weapons. Are we going to attack them all?" she said.
Gina Maggrett, of Pueblo, liked what she heard.
"(She's portrayed) as this caustic person but I thought she was really warm and intelligent. A lovely person," she said.

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Cows don't fly where I live, unfortunately. Do cows fly where you live? (are you in Florida? lots of things flying through the air these days!)
p.s. - interesting:
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/07/30/news/wyoming/63b4fcb928fe8e6987256ee10054e715.txt
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and:
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On the Road, Bush Fields Softballs From the Faithful
by Elisabeth Bumiller
New York Times, 8/16/04
His father loved them, Richard Nixon started them and President Bush has turned them into the near-daily warm bath of his re-election campaign.
Last week alone, in Virginia, Florida, New Mexico and Oregon, Mr. Bush had four "Ask President Bush'' question-and-answer sessions with rapt Republican audiences. The week before he had one in Columbus, Ohio, and this week he has one scheduled for St. Croix, Wis.
As anyone who has sat through the 90-minute forums knows, the questions are not hand grenades that detonate onto the evening news. Take, for example, one of the first queries at the "Ask President Bush'' session in Beaverton, Ore., on Friday:
"I'm wondering if I can get some inauguration tickets?''
Or consider this from Albuquerque on Wednesday:
"Can I introduce my mother and mother-in-law, who are new citizens to this country?''
Many times the questions aren't even questions at all. Exhibit A might be these words from an audience member in Niceville, Fla., on Tuesday:
"I'm 60 years old and I've voted Republican from the very first time I could vote. And I also want to say this is the very first time that I have felt that God was in the White House.''
"Thank you,'' Mr. Bush replied, to applause.
Bush campaign officials tell reporters at every "Ask President Bush'' forum that the questions are not planted and that the sessions are spontaneous. Senator John Kerry's campaign officials say the events are too ridiculous to be believed.
Whatever the case, Bush campaign officials readily say that they carefully screen the crowds by distributing tickets through campaign volunteers. "Our supporters hand them out to other supporters and people who may be undecided,'' said Scott Stanzel, a campaign spokesman.
The result is often a love-in with heavily Christian crowds. Mr. Bush relaxes, shows off his humor and appears more human than in his sometimes tongue-tied and tense encounters with the press. He clearly relishes the sessions: As of this coming Wednesday in Wisconsin, Mr. Bush will have had 12 such campaign forums, which is one less than the number of solo news conferences he has had in three and a half years in the White House.
Of course, reporters write that the events are canned, but campaign officials care only about the lively snippets of Mr. Bush that get on the local news.
"I'm also proud to be traveling with John McCain,'' Mr. Bush said to applause in Albuquerque, where he appeared with the Republican senator from Arizona after having him as an overnight guest at the presidential ranch. "Nothing better than waking up in the country and getting a cup of coffee and getting in the pickup truck and driving around and looking at the cows. That's what John and I did this morning. It's a good way to clear your mind and keep your perspective.''
Softballs aside, there have been a number of times when audience members asked substantive questions, like the woman in Florida with a brother on his way to Iraq who wanted to know if Mr. Bush had a plan for the American mission there. In Annandale, Va., a man asked Mr. Bush to comment on the nuclear threat from Iran, while another asked about relations between China and Taiwan.
But so far, Mr. Bush has fielded nothing close to the occasional tough question that his father got at his own "Ask George Bush'' sessions. In January 1988, during the Republican primary campaign, aggressive students at a high school in West Des Moines asked Vice President Bush about his role in the Iran-contra scandal. Six months earlier at an "Ask George Bush'' session in Canton, S.D., Mr. Bush was confronted by the brother of an American engineer killed in Nicaragua.
Bill Clinton also fielded the occasional hardball in his question-and-answer events. In a two-hour live call-in appearance on the CBS program "This Morning'' during the 1992 campaign, Mr. Clinton was whacked with this from an educator in Wisconsin: "From all the reports of your marital problems, et cetera, I'd like you to convince me that you would take the presidential oath seriously.''
When Nixon's aides started the format during the 1968 campaign as a way to loosen up the candidate, little was left to chance. As recounted in the book "The Selling of the President'' by Joe McGinniss, Nixon's aides requested specific help from Illinois in recruiting six people for a televised question-and-answer panel.
"They should be reasonably attractive, white - representative of the average middle-class voter,'' reads a memorandum included in Mr. McGinniss's book. Still, the memorandum said the panel did not have to be composed entirely of Nixon supporters: "It's desirable that some of the participants be uncommitted - or leaning in another direction - just so they're not actually hostile.''
Audience hostility at this point is hard to find on the 2004 Bush campaign.
"Mr. President, as a child, how can I help you get votes?'' a youngster asked at the "Ask President Bush'' event in Oregon on Friday.
"Thank you,'' the president responded. "That is the kind of question I like to hear.''
please state the source of these, and a more full context. i know you are saying "mtv choose or lose" but i was in college watching those events on tv at the time and i just don't remember these types of comments, or anything remotely like them, so i really question their validity. did they come to your awareness as part of a forwarded email you got? (RARE is the "email chain" that is not a scam or B.S. lacking in factual basis) Did they come from a right-wing blog?
if you actually have a reliable source and/or the context (the complete quote, the surrounding comments/interview questions, etc.) i might consider believing these are real. thanks!
palak had a reaction that many of us have-- which is that your clinton quotes had something quite unbelieveable about them, and on a hunch we requested you provide context (or a verifiable, reliable source -- reliable meaning not a blog or an email you got from your uncle shamus). you don't have to. just asking.
now when it comes to Farenheit 9/11, it is really irrelevant to the topic at hand which is just some typed quotes we were curious about.
If you are unhappy about what the film showed (I assume you watched it), that is one thing. But if you honestly think that some of that footage as it is seen in the film, is not DAMNING evidence of lies, insincerity, & incompetence, well then it's transparent what you are fussing about: the truth hurts and someone put some truth out there.
'context' is a concept that one could extend into infinity, but at some point you're just wasting time. In a court case do you want a jury to stare at 168 hours of security camera footage from the week of the 7-Eleven robbery, or is it okay if the bailiff starts the tape at a relevant point and then the judge moves on with the trial after you can see the 17 minutes of evidence necessary to pass a sound and reasonable judgment? (those of us who have ever done jury duty would agree: AH! I've seen enough!)
At some point any audience says, "I've seen enough. It doesn't matter what temperature the room was, or what he ate for breakfast, or which ligament he pulled jogging yesterday, or what nice thing he did last month -- those are irrelevant excuses, not 'context'. what I just witnessed speaks for itself and doesn't require more explanation." If you have seen the film you know there was plenty that was arty and over the top (voiceovers, etc.) and plenty that just speaks for itself.
i mean, of course at SOME point the filmmaker had to move on to other footage, after showing things like Bush making monkey faces and grinning and being goofy in the moments before he suddenly straightened his expression and began addressing the nation about the 9/11 tragedy... It would be a 1200 hour long movie if M.Moore showed us the amount of "context" footage you seem to require. At some point you just sound stubborn -- demanding someone prove the earth is flat and just insisting it is no matter what you hear.
I don't require any other footage to know that I am seeing President Bush have makeup and hair done at his desk in the Oval Office while making goofy faces and being jovial, and to know that his "grave" face (the one we saw in live time) was less than sincere, and that this occured precisely when our millions of hearts were utterly breaking with grief. I am free to apply what I see to my understanding of "leadership." You don't have to. With your alleged Clinton quotes, which are WAY easier for someone to fake than uninterrupted filmed footage of a human being, your audience was just requesting context. like i said, you don't have to comply. just asking.
where are women being forced to have abortions and what 'playing field' gets leveled when they do?????
i know this is a big country, but i must have missed that memo! sounds like someone spent too much time alone mulling over the state of the world today and came up with a really skewed explanation to tell themselves, about how the world works and what reality is ...
your point is interesting. my friends & i discuss it a lot- the shift of gender roles, the desire and/or necessity of work (usually today it is necessity-- don't imagine that America is loaded with women who are ambitious because it's just fun-- do all men love work because it's fun? couples who can thrive on one paycheck are not the majority). women, work, families and personal happiness- it's the constant conversation among young women i know. i am going to think about that. i had never thought that the accessibility of abortions plays into any of it. i just can't for the life of me imagine an intelligent, professional woman choosing abortion casually, or feeling like, i really want to be a Mom but there's NO WAY i'll be a professional success if i don't have an abortion! i know so many women who are ready for motherhood or who recently had babies who are negotiating that tricky terrain in various ways (the family/work dilemmas), and you're right we don't have a society yet that agrees that mom AND dad deserve maternity leave, and childcare for everyone, etc. I also know a very successful woman, the smartest boss I ever worked for who had a baby less than two years ago and the timing just so happened to fall into place where her career took off and she runs a major company and loves working and knows she's a happier, better mom because of that. i just think that in spite of not having the most supportive employers/society, women do their thing and work out solutions!
maybe i mistunderstand what you are saying. i know that abortions have always happened. and that safe abortion is a right that civilized nations around the world protect. a child has a right to be wanted and loved 100%. i wish no one ever needed to have one, and boy do i hope i am never in that situation of facing an unplanned pregnancy. it is a really tough issue all around isn't it and i think there is NO black or white. i feel anyone who is against abortion should not have one. beyond that, it's such a personal decision from person to person.
They don't know you, I presume. and so I am pretty sure none of the clintons would use the words 'pathetic' and 'trash' when talking about you.
This kind of "oh come on!" disparaging is the epitome of lowering the level of discourse in our national dialogue.
No, but I know people who do. Sorry I can't provide a link.
"and so I am pretty sure none of the clintons would use the words 'pathetic' and 'trash' when talking about you."
True, because I am neither. On the other hand ......
Bev
Amazing. I give quotes and sources (incidentally, LOOK THEM UP!) and you give me that lame response? Sounds like you'll believe anything as long as it's anti-Bush but will believe NOTHING that disagrees with what you know to be "true" without question.
I collected these gems myself over the years. Tell you what, I'll give you the tried and true CBS response: Prove them wrong.
So you refuse to believe quotes taken out of context yet believe whatever stupid propaganda the leftists and Moore put out, decidedly out of context.
Won't make a diff. Kerry is Texas Toast. Over done.
What's with that?
T-Rex Kerry is an African-American.
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