VALUING FAMILIES

Okay, I'm the mother of five still married to my college sweetheart, and my mother and sisters (Daddy's gone now) are the most wonderful women I know. So you can tell that family is a big thing with me.

But wasn't the sight of Chris Heinz carrying Jack Edwards around on his shoulders on the stage after Kerry's speech last night a Norman Rockwell kind of picture? Then came the shot of his brother teasing Emma Claire, and it all looked like a family reunion to me, those outstanding Kerry girls and hunky Heinz boys mixing naturally with the beaming Edwards kids as if it was just an ordinary beautiful day in the neighborhood.

We all get gut feelings from things like this from time to time. I've always looked carefully at a man or woman's family relationships as part of my overall evaluation of their character, especially in presidential races, where we're electing a "father of our country" for a season. For example, Reagan was a very distant father (though a devoted husband), so I couldn't see him as a man who would really care about the everyday lives of his constituents. The Bush girls certainly don't reflect well on the pResident's parenting skills, and the Bush siblings have had their share of scandals played out in the press, so Bush 41 didn't do much better. But both Kerry and Edwards have done marvelously well in raising their progeny and stepchildren (as did Carter, Clinton and Gore) to be well-adjusted, caring, down-to-earth young people you'd just love to embrace.