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Maybe that's because some of the most memorable story lines emerging from profiles and biographies and especially G.O.P. ads--the tales of his attending a Swiss boarding school, teaching his parakeet to speak French, allegedly flaunting his initials, J.F.K., as a politically precocious and impossibly earnest high school student--do not serve him well, especially in a race against a candidate like George W. Bush. Voters know where Bush comes from, in a way few generations have known about their Presidents. They knew the brand before they knew the man himself, got to watch his family in the White House for 12 years and on the public stage for many more. They are reminded where W. is from every time he opens his mouth. And in any case, Bush's biography is not likely to matter as much this time around; it's his presidency on which he will be judged. But the public is still getting to know John Kerry and may be surprised by his story.
*BORN TO RULE?
Kerry offers his bio as the story of a devoted family in which the children, by virtue of their father's foreign-service career, got to explore other cultures and acquire early on a commitment to serious public service. His detractors tell the story of an effete snob who "looks French" and can't possibly understand the concerns of average Americans. An ad by the conservative group Citizens United mocked Kerry for his $75 haircuts and million-dollar yacht and closed on this note: "Another rich, liberal elitist from Massachusetts who claims he's a 'man of the people' ... Priceless."
There is some irony in Republicans using Kerry's story against him, since in some ways it so closely matches Bush's. Both Bush and Kerry were the first sons of blue-blooded families: Bush is a 13th cousin, once removed, of the Queen of England; Kerry descends from John Winthrop, the founder of Massachusetts. Both attended elite Eastern boarding schools like their fathers, moved on to Yale two years apart and as juniors were tapped for its most exclusive secret society, Skull and Bones.
But the image of Kerry as a Boston Brahmin misses one point; he managed to have a privileged upbringing without the wealth that usually goes with it. From the outside he was an American prince, but within his rarefied world, he was actually one of the poor kids. "John was never a part of the Eastern elite, if you will, whatever that means," says David Thorne, a close friend going back to Yale days. "He was not in demeanor or otherwise the product of a rich family." Thorne, the product of a very rich family, knows the difference.
"Most people have not gotten it right yet," Kerry told TIME when asked about his formative years. "They seem overly focused on [my] being dropped off at boarding school. I keep reading 'rootless.' I could not disagree more. I have spectacular roots, a spectacular sense of family and place." It's true that many stories about Kerry's early years focus on their nomadic quality, maybe because he had gone to seven schools on two continents by the time he was in ninth grade. And as for an acute sense of family, Kerry did not know the whole story of his father's family until he learned it in early 2003 from the Boston Globe, whose staff has been the most avid archaeologists of Kerry's past.