US: The First Lady's clean-cut image didn't save her from heckling from the mother of a dead soldier, writes Conor O'Cleryin Hamilton, New Jersey
First Lady Laura Bush once explained that she had started campaigning for her husband last May because "obviously I can get in the news, to be on television and in the newspapers." That was why she came to the Colonial Firehouse in Hamilton Township, New Jersey yesterday morning to speak to adoring fans.
The crowed of several hundred, made up largely of women with children and local Republican officials in suits, had been given only two day's notice that President George Bush's wife would be making an appearance.
But other people not so enamoured with the Bush administration also heard she was coming to town, and the dozen television cameras were soon focusing on news that the First Lady would prefer not to make.
As she began talking about how "President Bush and I want our men and women in uniform and their families to know how much we appreciate their service", a woman's voice rang out from near the back.
"What about my son?" cried Mrs Sue Niederer from nearby Hopewell, who had taken off a T-shirt to reveal another underneath which bore the words "President Bush You Killed My Son" and a picture of her son, Army First Lieutenant Seth Dvorin.
As she continued to heckle Mrs Bush, people drowned out her words with a chorus of "Four More Years!".
Several men surrounded her and blocked her from view with Bush-Cheney placards, and one man continued to yelling "Four More Years" at her, even after Mrs Bush rather nervously resumed speaking.
Mrs Niederer was escorted through a side door and as she started to talk to reporters outside, police officers and secret service asked her to move on.
She refused, insisting on telling us how her 24-year-old son was killed in Iraq on February 3rd while trying to disarm a bomb. He had been in charge of 18 soldiers, only 11 of whom had returned from Iraq, she said.
"Please move away, this is a private event," said a security guard.
"Bullshit," she replied. "I'm not moving." Two embarrassed members of the Hamilton police handcuffed the wrists of the diminutive 55-year-old woman behind her back. A white prison wagon drove up and she was lifted bodily into the back, screaming "What are you charging me with?"
Mrs Niederer had somehow managed to get a pass to the all-ticket event and aroused no suspicion, despite being quite a well-known anti-war protester.
She has marched in anti-Bush demonstrations in New York as a member of Military Families Speak Out.
She has been interviewed on television, where she related how Iraqi veterans had stayed at her home after her son's death and how they all said the same thing, that "the Iraqi people don't want us there any longer."
The incident underlined the undertow of conflict stirred up by the war in Iraq which arouses deep emotions on both sides. The loudest cheers at the rally were for speakers introducing Mrs Bush who spoke of her husband as a decisive leader fighting a war on terror.
There was even a shout of "Traitor" when Senator Joe Kyrillos accused Democratic challenger John Kerry of "flip-flopping" on the war.
The choice of Hamilton for an unscheduled appearance by the popular First Lady also underscored the growing confidence of Republicans in the outcome of the November 2nd election.
Neither the president nor Mr Kerry have campaigned much in New Jersey, which both sides once regarded as a Democratic stronghold. But a campaign aide pointed out that a poll in the New Jersey Star-Ledger last week showed Kerry leading by only 43 to 39 per cent, where he once had a double-digit lead over Mr Bush.
Mr Bush regularly jokes that Laura Bush married him only when he promised she would never have to make a campaign speech. Now the First Lady has become an increasingly visible solo campaigner for her husband and makes speeches across the country, raising $10 million in funds.
She began as a stealth campaigner but has developed a polished style and attracts a big press corps. She has mastered the technique of smiling and waving her fingers at people in the crowd as if greeting best friends.
Her value to the Bush-Cheney ticket is that she is not seen as partisan but as conservative, respectable middle-class.
Congressman Chris Smith described Mrs Bush at the event as "deeply committed to promoting a culture of life with no child born or unborn left behind."
She was careful not to mention John Kerry by name and she has refused to criticise Mrs Teresa Heinz Kerry.
"She and I really are sort of in the same club," she told a reporter. "We're the ones who know what it's like for our husbands to run for president." This attitude, along with her unflapppable school-teacher manner, and her identity with "family values" makes her a big hit with Republican crowds.
"She reminds me of my mother," said a woman with a banner outside saying "We Love Our First Lady Laura".
Seen as a gracious southern lady by fans and a Stepford wife by critics, she takes a protective attitude towards her husband that hints at an underlying feistiness.
Asked recently about the row over TV ads criticising Kerry's Vietnam service, she suggested they weren't any more unfair than the "millions of terrible ads about my husband."
What is important to many Republicans in this middle-class suburb of Trenton is that her near-purity contrasts with the previous occupants of the White House.
"She brought honour and dignity back to the White House," said a speaker to raucous cheers and boos for the Clintons.
Mrs Bush who comes across as a woman without ambition except to get her husband back into office - has come a long way from the time when she said: "I told George I thought running for president might be just a little extreme."