Candidate Spouses Adapt To A Tricky Role

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

(Washingtonpost.com) 
Most know that their most important job is to keep the focus away from themselves and on the most positive aspects of the candidate. "There is no two-for-one," says Edwards, who gave up practicing law in 1996, in a reference to one of Bill Clinton's controversial lines in the 1992 race. "No one elected me to anything."

Apparently no one told Teresa Heinz Kerry that the candidate came first. In 2004, her introductions of her husband, Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, were largely long-winded stories about herself. She also tended to talk about her late husband, John Heinz, a tad more in interviews than her current one. Eventually, her profile was lowered.

Judith Steinberg Dean became an issue in husband Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid for what she didn't do: campaign. Steinberg, a physician in Vermont, did not show up in public until right before the Iowa caucuses, at the urging of Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who told the candidate that voters needed to see her. Darned if they do; darned if they don't. Campaigns and spouses negotiate this daily.

Thompson's entry into the race was briefly overshadowed by controversies over his wife's involvement in the campaign, and he was forced to spend time defending her. "It's understandable that American people want to see the spouse of who they are looking at as candidates," says Jeri Thompson, who notes that she was not at all surprised at the intensity and negativity of the news coverage about her. "It's part of the deal, part of the process." Nevertheless, she has tried to stay in the background since. She made her comments, in response to questions, via voice mail.

Rudy Giuliani's wife, Judith, has also tried to stay under the radar following two unflattering magazine stories.

The political wife of decades past had a well-defined role as a behind-the-scenes helpmate. Pat Nixon barely spoke. Abigail McCarthy considered herself "excess baggage." Bess Truman dodged the public altogether, saying: "I am not the one elected. I have nothing to say to the public." Jackie Kennedy rarely campaigned. Mamie Eisenhower said, "Ike runs the country, and I turn the pork chops."

A 21st-century campaign doesn't allow much room for a candidate's wife to disengage. The lightning media turnaround coupled with a celebrity culture shines the same white-hot lights on the spouse that were once reserved for just the candidate. Elizabeth Edwards has been startlingly outspoken during this campaign, calling in to a live news-talk program to take on right-wing pundit Ann Coulter on national television and saying there was too much "hatred" of Hillary Clinton for her to win the general election. She maintains she's not behaving much differently from 2004, when her husband was the Democratic vice presidential nominee. "There's just a lot more coverage," says Edwards, who has received additional attention since revealing she is battling incurable cancer.

"What we're seeing is the collision and collusion of the news media and the need for celebrity," says Paul Costello, who worked for former first lady Rosalynn Carter and Kitty Dukakis, wife of the 1988 Democratic nominee. "There was never this much attention paid to wives during the primaries before."

Anthony, the author, says Republican candidates aiming to attract the conservative base have to be more careful about the image they present to a constituency looking for a more traditional marriage. Their wives are far less open about their influence within the campaign.

Cindy McCain, who is chairman of her family's business, an Anheuser-Busch distributor, and active in humanitarian causes, says she feels her platform is best used to soften her husband's image and to talk about family. "The public really does want to see you as a couple," she says.

But there is such a thing as too much coupling. Rudy Giuliani has been criticized for taking phone calls from his wife -- 40, the Wall Street Journal estimated -- in the middle of public appearances. Last month, he awkwardly answered a cellphone call from her during a televised speech to the NRA, leaving the audience uneasy. (Fox News actually polled on the subject, and found that only 9 percent of Americans thought it appropriate for a candidate to interrupt a speech to pick up a call from his spouse.)

Jeri Thompson, who initially was believed to be micromanaging her husband's campaign, says her primary role is to "unapologetically" take care of her two toddlers and her husband.

Janet Huckabee, whose husband, Mike, is trying to lay claim to the Christian right, is an executive with Red Cross and ran for secretary of state in Arkansas. Yet in an interview, she is careful to play down her influence and role. "I primarily support my husband," says Huckabee, who said she has kept her job for income, and travels on weekends with the campaign. "On a very simplistic level, I try to be a helpmate.

"My husband is the candidate. He doesn't need me to be as well."

Ann Romney said in an interview that her role as a mother, wife and grandmother is her most important one. Still, these days she doesn't spend all that much time at home.

Limited by a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis a decade ago, Romney says she nonetheless independently travels about three days a week for her husband's campaign.

"What I feel I can do is talk about his personal side," she said. "I can talk about the issues if I'm asked. But I like to let people know we're a family and he's a husband and a father."

Of course, that hasn't stopped her from getting in a periodic jab. Asked earlier this year at a campaign event what distinguished her husband from the rest of the field, this wife of nearly four decades replied sweetly, "He's had only one wife."

Research director Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.

[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
___

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

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.