Knight Ridder Election 2004: Free-Fire Zone

Leo writes: Teresa Heinz Kerry made a very dumb remark about Laura Bush never having had a real job, because she forgot about her time as a librarian and teacher. Teresa then apologized, which was classy, and Laura then said the apology wasn't necessary, which was even more gracious. ... Many women who went into corporate suites have discovered it's difficult to really have it all and are returning to home and hearth. I wonder how they'll be voting?

Everyone's being so gracious over Teresa's super-stupid gaffe that I feel downright ungracious to point out that, in today's "Two Americas," just about the only women who have the ability to return "to home and hearth" are women with incomes the size of Teresa Heinz Kerry's.

(That's hyperbole, of course. In fact, I know of - and greatly admire - couples who take a severe economic hit in order for one parent, usually mom, to stay home fulltime with the children.)

But for millions of women, staying home is simply not an option. Ten million single mothers have no choice but to work outside the home to support their families, even if their children's fathers pay child support. In the recent economic downturn, single mothers - and their families - are really hurting.

A majority of married women work because they have to – their incomes are essential to making ends meet, even more so in the past four years as middle income families are increasingly squeezed, with real income down more than $1,500 a year, and costs like health care and college tuition way up.

It surely is in the self-interest of those women to vote for John Kerry: He supports the kind of programs for working families that the Bush administration has resisted, or tried to cut - the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Credit for lower income families, subsidized child care, after-school programs, health insurance for all children in America, a raise in the minimum wage, overtime.

Teresa Heinz Kerry may not be able to express it, but her husband can:

"Everywhere I go," he said in Reno last week, "I meet women working two jobs, three jobs, just to get by. And that's only counting the jobs they're paid for. After they punch out at work, many punch right back in at home for their next shift as care-giver, meal-cooker, financial-planner, house-cleaner - and all the other jobs they do to help support our families ...

"Today, for far too many women, the American Dream seems a million miles away, because when you've barely got time to sleep – who's got time to dream?"

posted by Carol Towarnicky at # 7:11 PM

Goodness gracious