BOSTON, Massachusetts, July 27 (AFP) - Would-be US first lady Teresa Heinz Kerry plumped for her husband John at the US Democratic national convention on Tuesday, and hit back at critics over her ill-tempered run-in with the press.
Kerry took centre stage with US media still abuzz after she told a journalist in no uncertain terms on Sunday where to put his question, and turned the uproar over her remarks into a defence of women's rights.
"My right to speak my mind, to have a voice -- to be what some have called opinionated -- is a right I deeply and profoundly cherish," she said, drawing roars of approval from the crowd.
"My only hope is that, one day soon, women -- who have all earned the right to their opinions -- instead of being labeled opinionated, will be called smart or well-informed, just as men are," she said.
"It is time for the world to hear women's voices, in full and at last."
The speech was radically different from an advance copy that had been circulated earlier to the media, suggesting the Democratic party had figured out how to turn her weekend press squabble to their advantage.
Kerry, once allied with the Republican party, had been an unexpected fixture on television screens across the country since Sunday, when she told a questioning reporter: "You said something I didn't say. Now shove it."
The encounter raised questions about her ability to stay "on message" as the four-day convention gala prepared to name John Kerry as the official Democratic candidate to take on George W. Bush in November's presidential election.
The first draft of her speech was short, direct -- and made no mention of her tart exchange with the journalist. But her presentation to the convention Tuesday evening turned that encounter on its head.
"By now I hope it will come as no surprise to anyone that I have something to say," she joked as she took the podium for a wide-ranging speech that dipped briefly into Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.
Recalling her childhood in the African nation of Mozambique, and later years in apartheid South Africa, the aristocratic 65-year-old painted an image of a united America under her husband and his running-mate John Edwards.
Taking a dig at Bush and the conservatives in his inner circle, she said US voters wanted a different United States from that offered by the incumbent over the past four years.
"The Americans John and I have met in the course of this campaign all want America to provide hopeful leadership again. They want America to return to its moral bearings," she said.
"It is not a moralistic America they seek, but a moral nation."
With the campaign trying to counter polls that show voters trust Bush more on the question of security, she also recalled her husband's decorated service in the Vietnam war.
"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 said.
"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," she said, again drawing cheers from the crowd.