Poor baby!!! She has still not recovered from a remark from Kerry in 2004...

[Mass]

Talk about villager.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/23/mitt-romney-john-kerry-and-more-painfully-awkward-politicians.html#comments

[Inuca]

1. I saw this a few days ago and

it made me so MAD that I even posted on the site, something I hardly ever do. The shallowness and silliness is incredible.

[wisteria]

2. I saw that too, the other day-how simple minded. And, she had to make a point of saying she fit in a

smaller size. And, honesty, I find it hard to believe he wouldn't know not to mention the size or a woman's weight to her. That would be so out of character for someone who is so considerate of others as the Senator is.

[Noisy Democrat]

3. Especially because it's ambiguous

IOW, she interprets it as if he'd said she was fat or had mannish shoulders. But assuming he made these remarks, there could still be a zillion interpretations. It could simply be that she's a tall woman, that he assumed a tall person can't wear a small jacket, and that the person in the seat next to her was itty-bitty, etc. Being tall myself, I don't think every observation about a woman's size is automatically hurtful -- nothing wrong with being perceived as tall and people assuming you'll need a larger size (though in fact tall women can often wear small size tops). Or for all we know, he might've babbled a bit about her shoulders because she has large breasts and he was afraid she'd think he'd been referring to that. Who knows what he meant? But of all the interpretations possible, she seems eager to grab onto the one that's insulting.

[karynnj]

4. I agree

It sounds like he was giving her an opening to say what size fits. I would bet that his slender, fit daughter Vanessa, who is tall does not wear size 0, though I would bet that she is likely to ever have any extra weight as her father - and Kerry himself, slender though he is, likely would find a men's medium uncomfortable or too short in the arms.

This sounds more like actually caring if what he gave her would fit than awkward. Not to mention, what is the alternative? He could have given every woman small - including Candy Crowley! - but then there would be complaints from some on that too.

Frankly, the reported conversation was not all that different than chatter in my family when a sister was passing out T shirts at our reunion - and no one found that offensive.

From what I see looking at google image - she looks tall and broad shouldered!
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://pewforum.org/Christian/Evangelical-Protestant-Churches/The-Future-of-Evangelicals-A-Conversation-with-Pastor-Rick-Warren.aspx&h=200&w=300&sz=19&tbnid=3y61mQx5FIxzQM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=132&prev=/search%3Fq%3DJill%2Blawrence%2Bimage%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=Jill+lawrence+image&docid=jxQERMT59We7zM&sa=X&ei=CTRdTtjzA9CSgQe93riKAg&ved=0CCAQ9QEwAg&dur=859

[ObamaKerryDem]

5. LOL!

I have to admit that I literally laughed out loud reading this..talk about reaching! I mean I certainly understand, as a woman, sensitivity to any (however wrongly/unfairly) implied reference to weight, etc..I really think this may be a "guy"/"girl" thing..something a man may (generalizing here I know) just not think about in the same way as a woman would. That said, I think this journalist is streching..big time. Even if this was indeed an awkward moment for JK, that hardly means he is just "socially awkward" in general (to say that would be to utterly ignore so much else about him).. or on par with the absolutely asinine "I'm unemployed, too!" remarks from Romney (among others...I am SICK and tired of all the JK and Romney comparisons that have been so frequent in this cycle..talk about apples and oranges!). That's just unfair. We ALL have our moments! That said, I really doubt JK made that remark with any intention to insult her..like some of you have already said, that just seems so out of character for him. It was probably (if he even said it..with some of this journalists, who knows??) just a passing comment (one seemingly actually out of consideration--wanting the jacket to be something she could actually use/enjoy). I think it's to JK's CREDIT that he attempted to elaborate, to make it better by explaining why he said that, even if the obviously super-sensitive author took it for further insult.

Apparently this still smarts for her. Perhaps she had a crush on him? :) I mean seriously, why even bring something like this up after all this time? It doesn't even come close to making the point she was attempting to make with this piece.

Silly. Not to mention unfair--and just another excuse for the anti-Kerry crowd (on the right but also sadly, an element on the left..) to bash away yet again. *sigh*