# Is Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira Heinz Kerry an asset or a problem to overc **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 25, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099 "2004-10-25T19:33:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![braintree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@braintree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/braintree)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/21 "2004-10-26T13:04:28Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > I was just trying to alert everyone to an upcoming double standard. Nancy’s astrologer, who had no actual effect on anything, was lambasted by the left as an example of how ridiculous Reagan’s presidency was. But now if Kerry was elected, and Ms. Kerry’s newAge beliefs inspire a Federal Department of ‘Wellness’, will we hear the outrage? Or will she be endearingly eccentric? Or will we see a new renaissance in new age philosophy? Sam, Sam, Sam. Maybe you ought to try eating the raisens too. First off, there are no instances, yet, of Teresa’s daffier ideas (and this is the first I’ve heard of it) influencing White House business. Nancy would schedule trips and meetings on the basis of what her astrolger was telling her. What made the Reagan presidency ridiculous was Reagan’s poor grip on reality. I mean, really, telling the Isreali Prime minister not once but twice that he helped liberate the concentration camps when, in fact, he never left California during the war? Kinda puts those raisens in perspective, doesn’t it? By the way, regarding Teresa, I really like the bitch. She’s smart, funny and, for her age, a hottie. When I hit my sixties I want someone next to me who looks that good. We can have our own Botox and Viagra party. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/22 "2004-10-26T13:11:40Z")
Department of Wellness may be a silly name, but there’s nothing new-age about the concept AFAICT. Any good GP physician will tell you that preventative medicine combined with good nutrition, exercise, and community involvement will result in a healthier patient; that’s all that “wellness” means in the context of medicine. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/23 "2004-10-26T15:00:34Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > My prescription would be something like this - get a bottle of gin and nine white raisins. Soak the raisins for two weeks. Now throw the raisins away, and drink the gin. **Sam** , I want to make you secretary of the new federal Department of Homeland Serenity. People tried to make hay out of Hilary Clinton’s hypothetical talks with Eleanor Roosevelt, too. We just like our first ladies to be nutty. Is that so wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/24 "2004-10-26T15:32:42Z")
I respect Heinz-Kerry a lot more as an intelligent woman who speaks her mind than I respected Hillary Rodham Clinton. Not that Hillary isn’t an intelligent woman who speaks her mind – she certainly is that – but when she started with the crap about changing her hairstyle because it improved her poll numbers and pretending that she baked cookies on a regular basis, I thought it was a load of anti-feminist B.S. Don’t get me wrong about the baking – I’m a feminist who bakes, and I’m damn proud both of my feminism and of my baking – but the whole point of feminism, to me, is so that women don’t have to try to be something they’re not. If you’re a good lawyer and you suck at baking cookies, then you should be able to do what you’re good at, and not have to apologize for it. And the whole flap about her hairstyle, and whether it’s appropriate for a First Lady to wear a pantsuit instead of showing her legs? Puh-_leeeaze_! ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/25 "2004-10-26T15:37:21Z")
I think her effect is negligible. The mid-American folks likely to be put off by her a) Europeaness, b) hypenated last-nameness, and c) general loopiness are unlikely to vote for stodgy, east-coast blueblood, let’s-talk-'em-to-death Kerry anyway. I, however, might, and hope that she can find something noble, distinguished, and most of all quiet to do for 4 years or so. Would it be too much to ask to find a Pres/First Spouse & VP/2nd Spouse combo that dosen’t contain at least one dimwit/loudmouth/inarticulate boob? ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/26 "2004-10-26T15:41:23Z")
Count me in as one with the “it doesn’t matter” crowd. Like others, I intensely disliked Tipper Gore, but she wasn’t a factor in my decision to vote for Al Gore. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/27 "2004-10-26T15:51:00Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I don’t care about First Ladies, but I do care about VP’s. Back when Perot was running for president the first time I voted for him after watching the _Vice_ Presidential debates. I liked the plain way Stockdale spoke. He could answer questions in simple and direct fashion, unlike those smarmy weasels Gore and Quayle. Admiral “What Am I Doing Here?” Stockdale? 😃 I have to admit that the Perot campaign had the best soundbites of the '92 debates, between Stockdale’s plaint and Perot’s “I’m all ears”… ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/28 "2004-10-26T16:46:38Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > The other day she offered her remedy for arthritis - it seems you have to get some white raisins and soak them in gin for two weeks. Then you have to eat exactly nine of them. Not eight, not ten. This will help arthritis. I’m amazed at the number of bloggers and Republican columnists who are treating this as if it’s some bit of whackiness that Teresa Kerry has pulled out of thin air. I’ve got to wonder where they’ve been all these years. This is a folk remedy that goes back decades, and for which there’s an enormous amount of anecdotal evidence (including my mother, who was a pretty hard-headed rationalist). As far as I can determine, however, there’s never been a good, controlled, double-blind study, so whether it really works, or whether the effect is purely that of a placebo, no one knows. It’d be a tough one on which to do a study, of course. How do you give people “fake” gin-soaked raisins, especially when you don’t know whether it’s the gin that may be the active ingredient or the raisins (or something about the combination)? It would be difficult to filter out the placebo effect. But it’s hardly “New Age!” At worst, it’s an “old wive’s tale,” and it certainly can’t hurt. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/29 "2004-10-26T16:48:05Z")
The gin alone would make it more effective than those damfool copper bracelets you see everywhere, even on some Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/30 "2004-10-26T17:13:26Z")
> [@Eva Luna](#): > > I respect Heinz-Kerry a lot more as an intelligent woman who speaks her mind than I respected Hillary Rodham Clinton. > > Not that Hillary isn’t an intelligent woman who speaks her mind – she certainly is that – but when she started with the crap about changing her hairstyle because it improved her poll numbers and pretending that she baked cookies on a regular basis, I thought it was a load of anti-feminist B.S. > > Don’t get me wrong about the baking – I’m a feminist who bakes, and I’m damn proud both of my feminism and of my baking – but the whole point of feminism, to me, is so that women don’t have to try to be something they’re not. If you’re a good lawyer and you suck at baking cookies, then you should be able to do what you’re good at, and not have to apologize for it. And the whole flap about her hairstyle, and whether it’s appropriate for a First Lady to wear a pantsuit instead of showing her legs? Puh-_leeeaze_! Heinz Kerry even admitted that the cookie recipe sent into the one magazine for the famous “First Lady Bake Off Contest” was sent in by a staff-she had nothing to do with it. I think the difference between Hilary and Teresa is that Hilary, for all her accomplishments, comes off as very cold and aloof. Whereas Teresa is very fiery and open and doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks. But then, she’s also lived in Pittsburgh for a long time. She’s typical of Pittsburgh women. Just look at Sophie Maslof! ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099/31 "2004-10-26T22:17:05Z")
Wow. I like Teresa Heinz Kerry (& don’t need a bunch of other names for people to know whom I mean). I find Laura Bush to be an unpleasant-looking shellacked Southern woman of the sort I would happily never see again. She doesn’t even have a pretty accent, just some nasal twang. I guess I like rich Latin/Pittsburgh women better than rich Texan women. :smack: I should move to Pittsburgh. Or Portugal. (Those who accuse me of pettiness should note the sexist drivel in the rest of the thread. If we’re talking about visceral responses, well, that’s mine.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-maria-teresa-thierstein-simoes-ferreira-heinz-kerry-an-asset-or-a-problem-to-overc/271099.md?page=1)