Candidate Spouses Adapt To A Tricky Role

Washington Post: Running Mates Try To Adapt An Archaic Stereotype To Fit Contemporary Times

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Lois Romano.

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This is one strange year for political spouses.

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped out as the unabashed career-driven wife -- and paid a high price for it. Portrayed as power hungry, she spent the next decade trying to win back the homemakers and other voters she alienated.

But she also thrived, surviving two presidential terms as the commanding "wife of." Then, in one of life's more astonishing journeys, the first lady became a senator and, from there, a front-running presidential candidate.

This all leaves the current crop of feisty spouses teetering between dutiful mate and accomplished professional as they try to adapt an archaic stereotype to fit contemporary times.

Elizabeth Edwards will say in one breath that her job is made easier by the fact there are now "so many more female role models in careers like entertainment, the media and politics." But she will also say she's not about to make the same mistakes Clinton did.

"Hillary Clinton in 1992 is a lesson in what not to do," offers Edwards, also a lawyer by training, whose husband is one of Clinton's opponents in the presidential race. "She was dismissive of the range of options women had chosen, declaring, 'I don't bake cookies. . . . I don't stand by my man.' That turned off some people."

However Clinton handled the 1992 campaign, it is hard to deny that her choices have changed traditional expectations, freeing her successors to step out from the shadows. Working mothers in campaigns are no longer anomalies, and Elizabeth Kucinich has not been compelled to conceal being the first wife of a major party presidential candidate with a pierced tongue. The wives seem more empowered than ever to speak out, sometimes against Clinton.

The intensity and speed of the 2008 presidential cycle has thrust onto center stage prematurely these women who seem to make as much news as the candidates. The first lady contenders include lawyers, a business owner, a public affairs executive, a Red Cross official, a nurse, a political operative, a college professor and homemakers. The spotlight will be on five of them today in California, when they join Maria Shriver to talk about the choices and compromises all have made as political spouses. Also looming large in any discussion of mates this year, of course, is a former president masquerading as just another supportive spouse.

Janet Fowler, a Dartmouth College government professor who has closely followed electoral politics, says there are "certainly a lot more activist wives these days.

"And there is a greater acceptance of assertive women that is consistent with other societal trends," she adds. "But there is still a divide in the country in what people want and expect. Look at how much people like Laura Bush."

While a likable spouse is still far down the list of what most voters seek in a candidate, recent polls show that the partner nonetheless cannot be ignored. In a recent Newsweek survey, 57 percent of respondents said that a candidate's relationship with his or her spouse is revealing about what kind of president that person would be, and nearly a quarter of voters in a May Fox News poll said their opinions of candidate spouses would be extremely or very important to their vote.

As the most prominent and important surrogates in a campaign, they no longer have the luxury of sitting it out, or of traveling exclusively at their husband's (or wife's) side. Most keep independent schedules often as rigorous as the candidate's, have support staffs and strategically use their voices to promote the candidate and sometimes criticize the opposition, while trying to hold on to their own identities.

Edwards has pointedly swiped at Clinton, and Michelle Obama made it pretty clear she was reluctant to give up her career as a vice president at the University of Chicago Medical Center. (She has compromised by curtailing her workload to about a fifth of what it was before.) Ann Romney, a proud homemaker, took a potshot at her husband's opponents who have been married more than once.

Bess Truman, they are not. The American public is no longer inclined to tolerate a disengaged spouse.

Laura Bush is the most popular member of the Bush administration and has approval ratings that are twice her husband's, but not necessarily because she's a traditional spouse. "There is a great deal of independence perceived in her case," says Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. "She's not associated with the policies of her husband's administration like Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton were."

Today's spouse is expected to know the issues and to advocate, while also presenting the traditional imagery of family. "I don't know that what any of us of are doing is anything different than most American women, trying to prioritize," says Jeri Thompson, a former political operative and the wife of Republican candidate Fred Thompson.

But these women are leading their lives and prioritizing in full public view as they audition for first lady. "We do look at these women and try to get an idea of how they'll fit our image of the first lady as icon," says Carl Sferrazza Anthony, who has written numerous books on first ladies and political families.

Obama got off to a rocky start in her early speeches when she talked about her husband's dirty socks and how he was "stinky" in the morning, an image people perhaps might have found a little too human. Those references have since been dropped from her stump speech, and she's not giving many interviews these days.

Jackie Clegg Dodd, who runs her own international business-consulting firm and is the wife of Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, said that it's critical not to create an "us versus them situation, homemakers versus career women," which she said Clinton did.
* * *

[mudrose-2009]

According to a number of Reports - Iraqi War Widows - Are Prostituting themselves to pay for Food
for their Orphans.

Worse? Iraqi families are selling their daughters to survive
___

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Lastdance
Posted by lastdance3

Yes and the Cubans and the Canadians have the best healthcare in the world. However, they just can''t surpass the excellant healthcare England provides.

[lastdance2]

The New York Inquirer
Thursday, September 06, 2007

According to a number of Reports - Iraqi War Widows - Are Prostituting themselves to pay for Food
for their Orphans.

Worse? Iraqi families are selling their daughters to survive
___

Sponsored - Supported and Endorsed by :
Every Woman - Connected to the - Republican (Nazi) Party

Lastdance

[condumism]

and what about jinGOPig Barbara Bush: mother of the WORST PRES in US HISTORY? Another non-story eminating fomr Corprorate America!

[rohink-2009]

Posted by StopTheWarrr

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Broken record.

[chucktruck2]

Ann romney is also my favorite...IF we vote for Rudy we will lose...PROLIFERS have voted prolife for 30 years ...REMEMBER CARTER ...28% to 37% of the base ,voting with a purpose... WAKE UP AND SMELL THE POSTUM ...ok... Bill as FIRST PERSON... who will be the next ashtray? ............PROMARRIAGE,always and between a man and a woman...... PROLIFE, Mitt did change... Social issue will unite us .....IGNORANT BIGOTS, MSM HITPERSONs, and LIARS that do not care will TRY to devide....."Evangelicals for Mitt" blog So glad that the darkness is drawing a plain line in the sand.Vote for anybody ...ANYBODY but Mitt and Hillary WINS ...GO figure and do the math...

[badmofojim]

Hillery wont win. Not because she is a woman. Because she is another clinton. We need a new name up there not this Bush-Clinton ***. Does america only have 2 familys that have the balls to be president?

[hawksprings]

jncc1701, you''re right.
I think it was back when the GOP was in control of the house and senate...

[jncc1701]

Cute little stories about spouses, but no REAL news or investigating about Mrs. Clinton''''s Chinese fundraising connections.

What will Mrs. Clinton owe the Chinese Communists if she is elected?
Will she send them more top secret military technology like her husband did?

That''''s where the REAL story is.

hawksprings you have the wrong story. Our country cannot function without Chinese money period - forget a few dollars to Hillary. We have borrowed our way to the point that the American Dream is dying.

Remember when we use to have a surplus?

[stopthewarrr]

***** Stop The War & Corporate Corruption *****

Why Don''t You Know Ron Paul??????

The corporate media will not give Ron Paul any Exposure. Because, NBC is owned by GE. GE is one of the world''s largest war-makers. They make things that go boom. They make $Billions on war. A Ron Paul administration would be bad for business. CNN is owned by AOL. Majority share holder is Saudi Royal Talal who is also partners with GHWBush in The Carlyle Group. Another major warmaker. And on and on. You get the picture. This is why they are doing a Media Blackout on him. Because they don''''t WANT YOU TO KNOW THE TRUTH!

Who is Ron Paul?
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/about

Ron Paul WON The GOP Debate On Sunday!
Again No EXPOSURE!

***************************
RON PAUL IS THE ONLY POLITICAN REPUBLICAN OR
DEMOCRAT THAT WILL STOP THE WAR! NO ONE ELSE
WILL, PERIOD! WAKE UP AMERICA! VOTE RON PAUL 2008
TAKE CARE OF AMERICA AND OUR PEOPLE FIRST, INSTEAD
OF HAVING OUR CHILDREN DIE IN A B.S. WAR!
***************************

[hawksprings]

Cute little stories about spouses, but no REAL news or investigating about Mrs. Clinton''s Chinese fundraising connections.

What will Mrs. Clinton owe the Chinese Communists if she is elected?
Will she send them more top secret military technology like her husband did?

That''s where the REAL story is.

[jack3213]

Let me preface this by saying that I value and respect women and have been impressed with their level of achievement in the last 40 years. I do have to mention, however, that at this level of office Z( the Presidency) I fully believe that a candidate should do his or her own work. I think the spouse can show support but not at the expense of making the candidate look like he or she cannot do their own work, which, from a man''s point of view, that''s what this does.

[antoniof123]

Hey I got an idea why don''t all of you spouses shut up and all the candidates stop lying to us.

I watched the debate in Orlando and the candidates even brought up some old lies that they were caught on.

Just talk only about the issues and stop trying to beat each other down with lies.

Well, if they did that then it would be a quite stage because I bet none of them have anything to say.