Heinz Kerry, in Iowa, urges supporters to fight for ideals
SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- While Senator John F. Kerry accentuated the positive on his roll toward the Democratic convention in Boston, his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, unfurled some new attack lines at a campaign rally here yesterday, recalling her college years in apartheid South Africa to criticize the Bush administration and pledging that Kerry would only send US soldiers to war if he was prepared to go first.
Together for a second day, a rare stretch for a couple that usually fans out to campaign events separately, Kerry stuck to his script of recent days outlining his own ''values" -- a poll-driven word chosen mostly to appeal to undecided female voters -- while Heinz Kerry showed a feistier side of herself just days before she makes her national debut in prime time with a convention speech Tuesday night. She and her advisers are still working on the tone and themes of her speech, which she said would run about 20 minutes and stick to ''familiar" themes.
Before a cheery 1,000 Iowans here yesterday, the prospective first lady recalled attending college in South Africa and living under apartheid, which spurred her to join the student protest movement of the time, and then exhorted the crowd to fight for their ideals too.
''I believe that when you know something, when things are afoul, you have to take a stand," Heinz Kerry said, noting that some of her friends went to jail because of their demonstrations. ''And today we are on a march, we are on a march as we bear witness not only to what has happened -- we bear witness for our kids and the kids of the world that what is in America's heart is not what America's been seen as and what our leadership is. What's in Americans' heart -- which we have to revive once again -- is can-do, is optimism, it's hope, it's generosity, it's tolerance."
She took a few other lightly veiled shots at Bush, targeting the president's leadership style -- ''What we need is a moral nation, not a moralistic nation" -- and praising Kerry's intellect over Bush's, as she did at a Boston fund-raiser early this month. ''He loves history," she said of Kerry, a huge fan of Lewis & Clark lore who chose this city for a rally because the explorers made a stopover visit here. ''He reads history. He actually reads."
At the same time, Heinz Kerry said that the job might be too important for mortal men. ''I don't think personally that anyone is ever qualified enough to be president of this country -- but he's pretty close to it. But not there. I would never tell him if he were there," she said, laughing. ''Got to keep him humble."
Heinz Kerry is known for being candid, sometimes ad libbing in ways that make her husband's advisers wince.
Underscoring an image of Kerry that she and others will draw throughout convention week, Heinz Kerry recalled how the Massachusetts senator won a Silver Star: As a Navy swiftboat commander in Vietnam, he brought his men ashore under enemy fire, and Kerry jumped out first and ran after a Viet Cong teenager clutching a grenade launcher.
''He took care of business himself, facing a mortar," Heinz Kerry said. ''He will never send you unless he's prepared to go first. I promise."
Even though it was Teresa Heinz Kerry who targeted Bush, Kerry drew fire from the Bush campaign.
''John Kerry is using the Democratic convention and his pre-convention tour to undergo an extreme makeover of his out-of-the mainstream record," said Iowa congressman Steve King in a statement released by the Bush campaign. ''Cosmetic changes aren't enough to hide Kerry's deep record that has earned him the ranking as the Senate's most out-of-the-mainstream member."
Kerry, who was running late yesterday and spoke relatively briefly, mentioned Bush by name only once, promising to repeal the president's tax cuts for people who earn $200,000 or more. He also took a glancing shot at Bush's wartime performance by evoking his own experiences during Vietnam.
''I came back from a war that lost the consent of the American people. I came back from a war where people lied about what was happening," he said. ''And I know in my gut that the United States of America never goes to war because we want to, we only go to war because we have to."
Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com. 