John Kerry, Up Close And Personal
Energized by opening night appearances by Bill and Hillary Clinton and notable Democrats who castigated George W. Bush, the party now turns to John Kerry's outspoken wife and an aging liberal warrior to define the Massachusetts senator.
Teresa Heinz Kerry, widow of a Republican senator who inherited his family's ketchup fortune, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy will offer the nation a more personal and family view of the party's candidate for president on the second night of the Democratic National Convention.
Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt, Carol Moseley-Braun, Ron Reagan, and Maya Angelou will also take the podium on the convention's second day to extol the virtues of the Massachusetts senator and the urgency of retaking the White House.
Democrats also are looking to their keynote speaker, Barack Obama, their Illinois Senate candidate who would be the first black Democrat ever to serve in the Senate, to energize the party's base.
Kerry was appearing Tuesday in the Navy town of Norfolk, Va., Tuesday, where he was calling for the Sept. 11 commission to continue working past its scheduled end date of Aug. 26 to ensure recommended reforms are put in place.
Kerry is to arrive at the convention Wednesday as the question of whether he or President Bush can best protect America from terrorists continues to dominate the political debate.
His wife, Heinz Kerry, who drew attention this week by telling a reporter to "shove it" said in an interview broadcast Tuesday she would do it again, displaying the same unapologetic bluntness that Vice President Dick Cheney showed when he defended uttering a vulgarity to a Democratic senator last month.
"I wanted him to back off because he was trying to trap me with words I hadn't said, and I think that's my right, and I think you would do that too if someone attacked your integrity," Heinz Kerry told CBS News Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm about her comments to the editorial page editor of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Heinz Kerry has been called a reporter's dream, thanks in part to her candid and often colorful remarks that can raise eyebrows and generate a flurry of press activity.
Popular with Kerry staffers, she is anything but the traditional political wife. She is not scripted, she is not demure and she is not typical. She speaks in a stream of consciousness that exudes a certain thoughtfulness and sincerity, which can transcend demographic and cultural boundaries, reports CBS News' Bonney Kapp.
It's that earnestness which allows the international philanthropist to relate to voters whose net worth may not rival her estimated $550 million.
"Teresa never gives the same speech twice," explained her spokesperson, Christine Anderson, maintaining that Heinz Kerry is neither coached nor counseled on the style and content of her events. "She's just learned from being out there on the road making speeches," Anderson added.
In Early Show interview, which was taped Tuesday, Heinz Kerry also acknowledged her reluctance to see her second husband run for the White House. Her first husband, Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., was killed in a plane crash in 1991
"When you can see the faces of presidents when they go in and when they come out, it's a huge weight," she said. "A great honor, obviously, but a huge weight."
Introducing her husband and former President Bill Clinton Monday night as "the last great Democratic president," New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton revved up the packed convention hall by saying Kerry "will lead the world, not alienate it."
"During the Vietnam War, many young men, including the current president, the vice president and me, could have gone to Vietnam and didn't. John Kerry came from a privileged background. He could have avoided going too, but instead, he said: Send me," Mr. Clinton said.
The head of the largest union in the AFL-CIO created a minor stir when he told The Washington Post the labor movement is in crisis and might be more motivated to change if Kerry is not elected president. Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, later clarified his remarks, saying after the story appeared on the paper's Web site that he is committed to helping Kerry win.
Republicans, in town to combat the Democrats' message, aimed to contrast what they called Mr. Clinton's more centrist policies with Kerry's liberal voting record in the Senate. "It's going to be difficult for Kerry to wrest control of these folks from the thrall of Bill Clinton," veteran GOP strategist Rich Galen said.
Former Vice President Al Gore urged Democrats to "fully and completely" channel their anger over the bitter Florida recount, which decided the 2000 election in President Bush's favor, and send Kerry to the White House.
"When policies are clearly not working, we can change them. If our leaders make mistakes, we can hold them accountable - even if they never admit their mistakes," said Gore.
Former President Jimmy Carter, elected to the White House in 1976, accused President Bush of squandering the international goodwill that flowed to the United States in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Pre-convention polls show Kerry tied or slightly ahead of President Bush, although the same surveys show the president with a clear advantage over his challenger in handling the war on terror.
The first national political convention since Sept. 11, 2001, was influenced by the terror attacks in ways both big and small. In a ceremony of remembrance, the hall went nearly dark but for small flashlights held aloft as the strains of "Amazing Grace" floated across the arena from the violin of a 16-year-old musician. Outside, armed officers stood guard along a seven-foot-tall metal security fence that ringed the convention complex.
The president, meanwhile, stayed out of the public eye at his Texas ranch.