Behind every great man there stands a great woman. In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’m giving a shout out to all the first ladies.
Having your entire private life scrutinized by the entire population would be hard for anyone, but having all of it unveiled when you’re not even the one making the decisions could be even harder, especially when the things you don’t want to dig up are exposed. It’s never just a candidate running for president, it’s his or her spouse as well. Their family, their entire lifestyle is put under a magnifying glass. At least celebrities can make mistakes, but for the first family? That’s out of the question for them all.
First ladies are seen as some of the best-dressed women of all time and are role models, just like their husbands, and many of them maybe should be considered as more than just the woman behind the man.
Surrounding Karen Santorum, Rick Santorum’s wife, is a lot of controversy over her and her husband’s switch from a pro-choice to pro-life stance, and around an ex-boyfriend of hers who was an abortion doctor. Karen is an established author of “Everyday Graces,” a book on etiquette for children, and of “Letters to Gabriel,” a book detailing her experience in losing her son Gabriel after he had to be born prematurely and only lived for two hours. This experience was enough to change the Santorums’ stance on abortion.
Gabriel was diagnosed with a fatal-if-not-treated defect while in the womb and the Santorums, acting only as heart-broken parents, opted for the surgery, resulting in an infection in the womb that meant they had to send Karen into labor to get the baby out in order to save her life. Rick and Karen now believe in giving every life a chance, which is understandable when you’ve been struck with such tragedy. The Santorums still have seven living children, though their eighth child, Isabella, was diagnosed with a serious genetic disorder. Doctors gave her only a 10 percent chance of survival past the first year, according to The New York Times.
Callista Gingrich, third wife of Newt Gingrich, is the president of Gingrich Productions. Although not as personally vocal as other candidates’ wives, she is not without controversy. She spoke at Newt’s divorce hearing of his second wife, testifying that the couple had been together for quite some time, a typical Washington affair of the Monica-Bill kind, after meeting while working as a congressional aide. Among these accounts, tales of plastic surgery have been flying around as well, which might be embarrassing and damaging for her whether or not they are true.
On the less controversial and more political side of the first ladies is Carol Paul. She and Ron Paul, high school sweethearts, are campaigning as a family. She’s played a large role in Ron Paul’s campaign, traveling with him everywhere and attempting to secure women voters. She campaigns mainly toward the female voters trying to hit their softer side with tales of her high school romance and how Ron has delivered thousands of babies as an OBGYN doctor and now wants to “deliver our boys home from overseas.” Carol Paul is a very respectable woman whose only big controversies lie within her husband’s campaign strategies and libertarian political stance.
Along with Carol Paul’s political or controversial image is Ann Romney, who’s been a staple of Mitt Romney’s campaigning from his 2008 presidential run up through now. Although she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998 and breast cancer in 2008, she has yet to let that slow her down in anything. She has participated in many charitable organizations and was appointed head of a special office whose purpose was to help Massachusetts faith-based groups gain more funding in association with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. She has also been an active member in the politics of the Romney campaign, expressing her own views and opinions on teen pregnancy and stem-cell research which I, along with others, greatly respect.
Bristol Palin is another popular example of first families being in the light. When she became pregnant with her son, Tripp, her whole life was changing faster than she wanted and she didn’t need the entire country scrutinizing her every move. The public eye on the first family might be even harder than it being on just the president himself. The wife or children’s actions reflect upon the husband and his campaign as well as themselves. That’s twice the pressure to never slip up, especially for women whose whole lives have been in politics. It’s hard to imagine how they manage it all. But, luckily for the Republican voters, we still have some strong first women on our side. A Valentine’s Day card at Target, sporting Barack Obama holding a bag of candy in front of a little girl said, “Don’t let the Democrats take your candy away too,” but you know what the Democrats can never take away? Classy first women, filled with style and grace.