A Woman's Place

[csberry]

"This is the most important office in the world and you ought to have an interest that your husband is doing it. So, where are you?"

I have to agree that if either member of a marriage where to be involved in a Senate/presidential race, that the spouse should be willing and able to pitch in. Come on, even spouses show up for the family reward challenges in Survivor! There is no way that the nonpartisan, general public would back Dean w/ an invisible wife. If spousal relations had no effect on the voting public, then why did Gore tongue-lash Tipper at the Dem convention?

Comments

This is the best thing ever.

[genuinechris.livejournal.com]

I think it's progress that we are not so concerned with what our sposes are doing. I think it's progress that Dean's willing (or forced) to do this.

That said, I don't like Dean. That said, I don't think his decision is going to win any votes.

But, I think that the decision to bring a spouse on board should be...a choice, a marketing strategy, not a political necesity.

Re: This is the best thing ever.

[csberry.livejournal.com]

Since the spouse has no power (despite what Hillary seemed to think during Bill's first term), I'm not casting my vote on the qualities of the candidates' other half. I'm still undecided on if it actually has zero effect on my feelings...it's, at least, not a conscious criteria. My point is merely that a lot of people would have their "something's funny alarm" go off in this sort of circumstance. I think the article's right that it's probably the insight that voters get about the personality of a candidate when you see their relationship with the spouse.

Now, bringing this all back to Dean...
Despite the poor showing in Iowa, Dean has been expected to easily do the dance to the left during the primary season. It is his appeal to those Democrats that don't like being called "liberals" and the American center that needs any personality boost it can get. Showing how he's a good family man is a big part of that, unfortunately.