Wives bite the bit in first presidential primary

By RUPERT CORNWELL in Concord

Teresa Heinz Kerry, Mozambique-born and heiress to a US$600 million ($896 million) grocery fortune, found herself a star attraction in a distinctly unaccustomed venue - on a makeshift stage alongside union members at a small-town fire station in rural New Hampshire.

Such are the perils of being a candidate's wife in the first presidential primary.

In these final days of campaigning, spouses, too, have become vital props to their husbands, not only to share the stress of an election which might make or break their political careers but also to show the candidate's human side.

If the race for the White House is under way so, more subtly, is the race for the unelected post of first lady.

After being all but invisible for the past 18 months, Judith Steinberg Dean has briefly abandoned her GP's practice to join husband Howard as he seeks to put his recent troubles behind him.

If he is elected President, promises the former Governor of Vermont, "Judy's going to continue to work as a doctor". Whether the Secret Service would ever permit such a thing is quite another matter.

Right now, however, she is playing a vital role, offering assurance that Dean is not the out-of-control maniac he seemed in that celebrated post-vote appearance in Iowa.

Polls suggest the Judy treatment may be starting to work.

Elizabeth Edwards is more used to the rough and tumble, having campaigned for husband John back in North Carolina. But at one weekend rally here she found herself addressing an overflow crowd who could not get into the room where Edwards was speaking. "It's terrific fun," she said gallantly.

Most intriguing of the wives, however, is Teresa Heinz Kerry - widow of the Republican senator John Heinz - whose outspoken habits made so many headlines the Kerry campaign assigned a handler to ensure she did not put her foot in it.

On Monday, however, she stood out like a duchess in a doss-house, sitting on the stage with dark glasses on the top of her hair.

Nobly she pretended to be following a speech she must have heard a thousand times, but she is unlikely ever to match Laura Bush as the rapt and adoring political wife with the permanently frozen smile.

When the rally began, 1 1/2 hours late, she stood and waved to the audience as Kerry introduced her as "a remarkable woman ... who'll make an outstanding first lady". He might well have added, and a fascinating one.

- INDEPENDENT