I probably didn’t make it clear enough, but in any case you missed my point. Neither Kerry nor Teresa is “self-made.” They both show the telltale signs of the gold-digger.

The comparison’s not so much between new and old money as between, on the one hand, people who either earned or inherited their money and those who, like JFK and his second sugar mommy, Maria Teresa, married into money.

The former tend to have a decent regard for others’ opinions and a more or less realistic view of the real extent of their own merits. The latter tend to have absurdly inflated notions of their own worth, and treat others accordingly.

Truman was largely a self-made, also partly a (Kansas City Democratic Party) Machine-made man.

Other self-made presidents in the modern era include Clinton, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, LBJ, and Eisenhower. Despite some of these men’s egregious lapses in judgment, it’s fair to say that none of them or their wives exhibit the same level of “Do you know who I am??” narcissism that JFK and Maria Teresa routinely exhibit.

One last point: the only “class” or aristocracy that I acknowledge is “class” as used by the average joe, signifying superior character. Or as EM Forster put it, (if I remember right) the “aristocracy of the talented, the plucky, the brave and decent” people. Has zip to do with the amount of money you have, but a great deal to do with your own understanding of your own merit.

That is the most outrageous classist drivel that I’ve read in ages. You’re saying that people new to money can never be as reliable, sensible, useful, whatever, as people who are born to money? I’d take Harry Truman over Nelson Rockefeller any day. To the extent that George Bush is a good leader, it is due to good judgement and common sense rather than the fact that he was born rich. Maybe Yale had something to do with it, but poor people go to Yale, even fatherless children from Arkansas.

… No, wait. It was satire wasn’t it. Joke’s on me.

Gates would never look down his nose at someone with no money. He’s lived the American dream and knows what it is. I still think of Gates as a peer

I too have no problem with Maria Teresa as a person. She’s probably a helluva lot of fun to be around, and would likely make for a good dinner party guest, or fellow PTA member. She seems to have been a good mother to her kids, the kind of fun, liberal mom who’s especially good with adolescents.

But the thought of Maria Teresa as a prominent public official or First Lady is appalling. She’s basically a nouvelle riche, and like all nouveaux riches, cannot understand that, without her dead husband’s money, she would not be taken seriously by anyone.

The poise, the ability to make measured, discreet, careful judgments on public issues that we associate with someone like a Clare Booth Luce, a Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy or a Laura Bush, comes only from being born into a discreet and moneyed environment and/or a basic sense of dignity and class, and neither of these applies to Heinz Kerry. Lessons in demeanor and class appear to have been missing from Heinz Kerry’s upbringing.

Then there’s her feminist heroine delusion. Unlike people who either earned their money or were born to it, she seems to actually believe that when one marries into big money, one also acquires a privileged status as a national figure, a champion of all Right-Thinking people whose opinions ipso facto command the nation’s respect.

In her own mind, the head of the Heinz Foundation rates as a feminist icon on a par with Betty Friedan and Carly Fiorina.

Of course, it doesn’t work that way. Hewlett-Packard’s CEO and the original feminists earned their reputations the only way possible: through decades of hard work, done against great obstacles and in obscurity. These women know from hard experience the value of doing your homework, polishing your statements, not going off half-cocked and not cussing or sneering at your critics. Do otherwise, and you can kiss your career as an up-and-coming corporate leader or feminist writer goodbye.

Heinz Kerry shows up twenty years later as a rich man’s widow, marries a(nother) senator, and pretends to be a decorated veteran of the Feminist Struggle? Nope.

Ignore the fancy accent, the multiple languages. This woman’s as clueless and deluded as any other gold-digger. Your average Becky Sharp or Anna Nicole may be lots-o-fun, but best IMO to keep her away from the White House.

Hey, for real? The one on Ivar? We’ve been crossing paths “for a month of Sundays”, as they say.

Do you look just like that little picture, complete with fedora, even? I’ll look for ya…

What you said about Kerry’s serene confidence in the safety of his own anointed skin no matter what happens to others was a thought that occurred to me the first time I read Bai’s article. So I was delighted to see Rudy call Kerry’s dangerous twaddle for what it is.

I sometimes wonder how the Secret Service agents assigned to Kerry really feel about their job.

Yes, but Kerry will be safe because he will surrounded by Secret Service people who will sacrifice their lives to protect him if necessary.

I lost friends on 9-11. There is NO ACCEPTABLE LEVEL OF TERRORISM. Rudy is right and so are you.

Kerry is a scary guy and the world will be a more dangerous place if he is elected President.

Yes, but Kerry will be safe because he will surrounded by Secret Service people who will sacrifice their lives to protect him if necessary.

I lost friends on 9-11. There is NO ACCEPTABLE LEVEL OF TERRORISM. Rudy is right and so are you.

Kerry is a scary guy and the world will be a more dangerous place if he is elected President.

Yes, but Kerry will be safe because he will surrounded by Secret Service people who will sacrifice their lives to protect him if necessary.

I lost friends on 9-11. There is NO ACCEPTABLE LEVEL OF TERRORISM. Rudy is right and so are you.

Kerry is a scary guy and the world will be a more dangerous place if he is elected President.

Yehudit ó That WaPo article can’t be right. I mean, if something like that was happening, wouldn’t I have read it in either one of the Times or on 60 Minutes?

And to think, the Kerry’s are the beneficiaries of a Republican’s fortune. The irony is great. It also makes the Kerry’s that much more distasteful to anyone that wants to think about it for a minute.