Teresa Heinz Kerry auditioned before the American public early on Wednesday morning for the role of first lady with a speech that insisted upon her right to speak her mind.
Taking her reputation for outspokenness head on, the multimillionaire wife of Senator John Kerry told delegates at the Democratic national convention that the right to speak freely was one she cherished.
”My only hope is that, one day soon, women, who have all earned their right to their opinions, instead of being labelled opinionated will be called smart and well-informed, just like men.”
Her comments followed an incident earlier in the week when she told a journalist from a rightwing publication to ”shove off”.
”By now, I hope it will come as no surprise that I have something to say,” she told the convention.
But the speech was anything but controversial. In a carefully orchestrated address where even the red ”We love Teresa” placards matched her jacket, Mozambique-born Heinz Kerry, who grew up under a dictatorship, talked about her love and admiration for the US and belief in her husband to lead it to better times.
”I have a very personal feeling about how special America is and I know how precious freedom is. It is a sacred gift, sanctified by those who have lived it and by those who have died defending it.
”John believes we can, and we must, lead in the world as America, unique among nations, always should — by showing the face, not of our fears, but of our hopes.”
Heinz Kerry (65) was previously married to Republican senator John Heinz for 25 years. After his death in a plane crash in 1991, she assumed oversight of the Heinz family fortune and set up a philanthropic foundation. Kerry and Heinz Kerry have been married for nine years.
Her son Chris said he recalled meeting his future stepfather and thinking ”the only man good enough for my mother is the president of the United States”.
”I think it’s going to work out,” he told the convention.
Earlier Howard Dean said he would stand ”shoulder to shoulder” with Kerry, the man who knocked him out of the Democrat candidate race he was once tipped to win.
”This was never about me. It was about us. It was about giving new life to our party, new energy to our democracy,” he told delegates to some of the loudest cheers of the evening.
”You given so much and I want you to give one more thing. I want you to give America John Kerry as president.”
Other speakers included Tom Daschle, the Democrat leader in the Senate, and Richard Gephardt, former Democrat leader in the House of Representatives.
Senator Edward Kennedy welcomed the delegates to his and Kerry’s hometown with a twist on Roosevelt’s depression-era warning that the only thing Americans had to fear was fear itself.
”Today we say the only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush.”
A stand-out speaker of the evening was Barack Obama, a candidate for the Senate, who would become its only African-American member if elected.
He criticised ”spin masters and negative ad peddlers” who wanted to divide America into liberal and conservative, black and white.
”There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.
”The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into red states and blue states; red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.”
He said Kerry’s election would represent a triumph for a politics of hope. – Guardian Unlimited Â