AVITAL MERGER

摘要

The question seemed per-fectly innocuous. A student at a small gathering of college Democrats in Lacey, Wash., asked Teresa Heinz Kerry why her husband had waited so long in the Senate (almost two decades) before deciding to run for president. The candidate's wife suddenly recalled something her mother had told her: that the Devil was powerful not because "he's so smart―he's so smart because he's so old." John Kerry as the Devil? For a moment, it looked like the sort of unfortunate, oddball blurt that makes campaign handlers cringe. Kerry's staff has long been uneasy about Teresa Heinz, a demanding, somewhat unpredictable 65-year-old demi-billionaire. But no one in the audience seemed to mind or even notice a sinister juxtaposition. The crowd laughed with her. Perhaps it was the context, an entertaining monologue about her roots in colonial Africa, delivered in her trademark, slighdy sexy, vaguely exotic accent. Or perhaps it was just a friendly crowd, Democratic activists who want to believe that Kerry is the One. In any case, the audience appreciated her bluntness when she finally got around to answering the question. "You know what?" she said. "I don't think he was ready." When John Kerry first declared for presi-dent a year ago, the conventional wisdom among Washington know-it-alls was that wife Teresa (pronounced Tehr-AY-zuh) would be a loose cannon who would drive away voters. She was widely seen as imperious, long-winded and way too outspoken about her various causes and charities (as well as about her husband's shortcomings). But as she traveled around the country on her husband's behalf, she has been charming and winning. Her three sons and his two daughters (all in their 20s and 30s) have, af-ter an understandably bumpy merger, come together as attractive friends and step-siblings. The Heinz Kerry family is not ex-actly the Brady Bunch. But it is an interest-ing and involved family that has become a significant asset in the campaign.