Mrs. Kerry's Speech Panned

Teresa Kerry's speech at the Democratic convention came in for some harsh words from Reason magazine editor Nick Gillespie:

Somewhere during Teresa Heinz Kerry's long, meandering speech that only drew plaudits from party loyalists, I became convinced that she is, in fact, a Republican operative in deep, deep, deep cover. In this scenario, she never broke with her first husband's party, but in fact secretly pledged to help it through subterfuge.

It was the only way I could make it through her talk, which was the sort of rambling, disconnected spiel that multimillionaire philanthropists routinely give in their living rooms during charity events (where the audience is every bit as captive as schoolkids during a weekday Mass). She came across as slightly odd — the space age Madame Mao suit didn't help — self-indulgent, and goofily disengaged from mere mortals.