Teresa And The Wish List

CBSNews.com producer Jarrett Murphy is reporting from Boston this week.

Democratic delegates wanted a lot from Teresa Heinz Kerry's address to the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night. Her speech appeared tailored to meet at least some of their wishes.

Heinz Kerry had made headlines this week, both for a remark to a reporter on Sunday and a quote in a book published nearly 30 years ago. But the would-be first lady's style doesn't bother delegate Beuenia Brown of New Rochelle, N.Y.

"It's a good thing — she's outspoken," Brown said.

"I feel she should speak to the women voters and make it clear that she has a connection with him," said Nina Anderson of Worchester, Vt. "I would prefer to see her have a clear personality, but I'm not sure how that would affect her as far as votes."

Indeed, Heinz Kerry's remarks seemed tailored made for the female vote. Her speech sought, she said, to "acknowledge and honor the women of this world, whose wise voices for much too long have been excluded and discounted." And she stressed the importance of women — like her — speaking their mind.

"It is time for the world to hear women's voices — in full and at last," she said.

Her policy focus also had a family theme: Kerry will create new technologies to reduce pollution, work to provide more affordable child care, and "recognize the immense value of the caregivers in our country — those women and men who nurture and care for children, for elderly parents, for family members in need."

"Isn't it time we began working to give parents more opportunity to be with their children and to afford to have a family life?" she asked.

But Heinz Kerry said little about another topic delegates wanted her to address: who John Kerry is to her.

"A wife is the other half of her husband and I think people look at how they relate to each other," said Joy Randolph of Ravenswood, W. Va. "I would want to talk about the kind of man, father and husband he is."

"The main point of it is to shed light on aspects of John Kerry's personality that a lot of Americans may not be familiar with yet," said Dominick Washington of Minneapolis, Minn. "Not a specific character trait as mush as just a familiarity. People like to feel familiar with their leaders."

John Hanneke of St. Charles, Mo., said Heinz Kerry must "be in concert with him," and tell American who John Kerry is.

"He still has to sell that to the people."

Susan Laughlin of Beaver County, Penn., agree. "A lot of people say they don't know much about John Kerry, and that includes me," Laughlin said.

Separate from Kerry's positions on the environment and family-friendly policies, Heinz Kerry confined her description of her husband's personality to his courage , a longstanding theme of the campaign.

"John is a fighter," she said. "He earned his medals the old-fashioned way, by putting his life on the line for his country. No one will defend this nation more vigorously than he will-and he will always be first in the line of fire."

"But he also knows the importance of getting it right," she added. "For him, the names of too many friends inscribed in the cold stone of the Vietnam Memorial testify to the awful toll exacted by leaders who mistake stubbornness for strength."

Heinz Kerry was part of a line-up of speakers for the second night of the convention who were supposed to flesh out John Kerry's biography. Others taking the stage will include stepson Chris Heinz and Kennedy.

Earlier, Heinz Kerry told CBS News Anchor Dan Rather that she finds the convention somewhat overwhelming.

"It's very hard for me to think that it's my husband and it's very hard for me to think it's me," she said. "I've been to a few conventions over time and always find them very overpowering and a little scary."

Heinz Kerry has not been afraid to make headlines at an otherwise scripted convention. On Sunday, she was caught on film telling a reporter to "shove it" after he asked her about comments she made to the Pennsylvania delegation about "un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics."

The next day, the Boston Herald published statements Heinz Kerry made in the seventies disparaging Sen. Ted Kennedy and other Democrats.

"I know some couples who stay together only for politics," Heinz Kerry was quoted as saying in a 1975 book about political marriages. Referring to Kennedy's marriage to then-wife Joan, she said, "If Ted Kennedy holds on to that marriage just for the Catholic vote, as some people say he does, then I think he's a perfect bastard."

She added that while she did not trust, President Nixon, "Ted Kennedy I don't trust either." She also called the Democratic machine "putrid." Heinz Kerry was then the wife of Pennsylvania Republican Sen. John Heinz.

Asked Monday, about his wife's "shove it" remark, Kerry told reporters: "I think my wife speaks her mind appropriately."

"I don't mind criticism, provided it's intelligent, not gratuitous," Heinz Kerry told the CBS News Early Show. "I'm not perfect, Lord knows. And I have opinions and so do other people. The only thing one hopes is that when people criticize you, they've really thought about it."

By Jarrett Murphy