Is Marriage the New Senatorship?

Political scientists will have a field day this September explaining how a candidate who won primary contests in California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas failed to secure her party's nomination. The lessons learned and questions resulting from this Democratic primary contest are some of profound ones posed in decades. One question that will likely be addressed by those with cogent gender-analytical skills is whether marriage has become the new senatorship.

Given the way that George Bush and his operatives instigated a stormy marriage debate one can be forgiven for thinking that marriage is the fourth chamber of US politics resting alongside the executive, judicial and legislative. As states across this nation continue making decisions on whether to allow gay marriage, marriage as a whole has risen in prominence as a hotbed political issue, one that even capable of competing with the Iraq War for political attention paid to in 2004's election cycle.

Gay marriage has not been a major issue during this year's campaign, which in turn has led to a more traditional angle to discussing marriage during presidential campaigns: who a candidate is married to. Thus Barack Obama opponents have sought to portray Michelle Obama as a firebrand whose politics run counter to his racial-unity platform, and similarly John McCain's opponents counter that he's out of touch because his wife, Cindy, is an heiress. While few will openly admit to this, implied in all discussions of Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama is an implicit critique of the decisions these men made in choosing their spouses, and how does this corroborate how these men make decisions in general. Senators are especially sensitive to assessments of their decision making, which is one reason why senators, especially those with long legislative records, have trouble becoming president. It has been close to fifty years (48 to be exact) since a sitting US senator was elected President. A senator's legislative record is a public register that stands as clear of an indicator of their moral and ethical spine a person can ever have. It is a forgone conclusion in American politics that the longer a candidate has been a senator, the shorter their odds are of becoming president.

Until recently, there had not been a similar principle for marriages. George and Barbara Bush are living examples that a candidate can have a long-lasting marriage and a successful presidential bid. Indeed, it worked to the benefit of candidates to spin stories about marrying their high school or college sweethearts. Marriage was then the antithesis of the senate, the more years, the better -- then came Bill and Hillary Clinton.

As Hillary Clinton prepares to end her presidential campaign, there will not be any shortage of articles ruminating on what went wrong with her campaign. A number of these articles are likely to address some variation of either her inability to keep Bill in check, or Bills inability to work his magic. Given his status as a former president it makes sense that his gaffes would garner more attention and be seen as potentially more damaging than those made by the other spouses. There was clearly an imbalance over attention paid to the Clintons' refusal to release their taxes and Cindy McCain's refuse to release hers. Likewise, Michelle Obama's comment that this is the first time in her adult life that she was proud of her country was more perniciously misinterpreted than anything uttered by either Bill Clinton. Therefore one can make a case that Bill broke even in terms of his treatment by the press.

Because of their shared celebrity, it is at times easy to overlook the fact that the Clintons are a married couple, and that their's is the longest lasting marriage of the three finalists in this year's campaign season. 95% of what Americans know about Hillary Clinton in her adult life occurred within the context of her marriage to Bill Clinton. Her senate career may be second only to Obama's in terms of brevity, but her marriage to Bill considerably outpaces both Obama's and McCain's tenures with their spouses.

Hillary Clinton is no Jeanine Pirro, whose political career has been repeatedly derailed by her husband's indiscretions. Nor is she a Kathleen Sebelius, the Kansas governor touted as a potential vice-presidential candidate -- few outside her inner circle would be able to point out her husband. Sebelius' case reasserts that credible invisibility is a prerequisite for a political spouse. If not, a marriage can quickly devolve into the senate chamber and a couple's victories and defeats are laid bare for the world to see. To that end, in its latest greatest sleight of hand history dealt stymied the ambitious of another campaign season's longest tenured senator.

Comments

[solidsonic02]

The process stymied Clinton. Marriage is the new Senate. The process stymied the longest tenured Senator.

Basically, having the longest (I won't say strongest, I believe that's the Obamas) running Marriage failed to help Clinton.

[jupitor]

Marriage is not when a woman stays with a spouse that committed adultry for the sake of her career! They have a good partner ship of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours! the protected the arrows aimed at each other during their many criminal behaviors, and managed to come out on top because of their political machine they build over all those many years. but the world is changeing, and that's been proven with her lose in this election! that means they are open season, if she is not the V.P. Thier is MILLIONS of reasons for them to stay together.

[lainey]

'"This is the first time as an adult I am really proud...because it feels like hope is making a comeback." As a 40 year old woman, I got what she was saying and I listened to the words that followed--"hope is making a comeback". Those are key words because for those of us in our 40's and late 30's, we haven't heard someone so thoroughly embrace the best of Americans. I fully supported Clinton in his first term (the man from Hope), yet there was always a character issue. While I could rally behind his ideas, I could never truly endorse him as a person. And as a young person, I was more willing to separate the two;as an adult, I am not. This is the first time in my adult life that I can vote and campaign for someone who shares my Democratic and personal values, and goes so far as to try and LIVE THEM; of that, I am really proud. Rest assured that there will be times when I disagree with Senator Obama and feel disappointed by the politics of being president, but I will know that his intentions come from his belief in the goodness of all Americans and his understanding of open and civilized debate. Of that, I am really, really proud.

[GunneraGirl]

Yessirree !! Absolutely!

[MarilynBB]

Watching the Obamas as a couple I see a true partnership marriage.

There are male dominated and female dominated marriages but too few couples in the public eye where the skills of both partners are obviously used to make a strong team.

Barack knows how to work as a team player and his decision making ability reflects a thoughtful process.

While some saw Barack's request that the press stop attacking his wife as weak as an experienced marriage and family therapist I saw it as supportive and indicative of the way he plays the game of life.

Gay marriages often reflect the sense of partnership of two people choosing to create a life using each of their strengths and supporting each other in areas of weakness. Those attacking them often are the ones who fear sharing power.

The age of co-operation and working together is hopefully upon us.

Putting someone else down to feel one up is abuse. It also says more about the person with the bad attitude than he one they are attacking.

Change is really happening! Hurray!

[bongogirl]

I agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Obama '08

[Ferentz LaFargue - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you anon004 for pointing out the full quote. I only intended to paraphrase Michelle Obama, which is why I did not put that line in quotation marks.

The sentence you quoted is admittedly slightly forced. What I was trying to say is that this campaign has been so much about people making history that we overlooked that history partly repeated itself, because if marriage is the new senatorship, then the longest tenured "senator" failed to make the final round.

[goosie29]

Still don't get the sentence

[anon004]

"Michelle Obama's comment that this is the first time in her adult life that she was proud of her country was more perniciously misinterpreted than anything uttered by either Bill Clinton . . . "

Actually, what she said was that for the first time in her adult life she was REALLY proud of her country. It's bad enough that the right wng-nuts are using a misquote against the wife of the Democratic nominee as a smear. An article ostensibly defending him (?) should at least get the quote right.

"To that end, in its latest greatest sleight of hand history dealt stymied the ambitious of another campaign season's longest tenured senator. "

Maybe it's late here, and maybe you didn't get the chance to proofread this, but what does this sentence mean? I've read it at least five times and I just don't get it . . .

[GinnyinCO]

Ditto. And I usually score well into the 90's in reading comprehension. This whole post seems like an exercise in running down a blind alley.

[rasthedestroyer]

It's early here and i'm having the same problem. what's the point. In the last 40 yrs. what has this country done that would make most americans proud. Let's see. could it be that we attacked the same country twice for no apparent reason, or the fact that a third or more of our labor industry has been outsourced. Maybe it's the so called war on drugs, prison building in the last twenty yrs. has made Billions for guy's like Bob (The price is right) Barker, while at the same time destroying Millions of lives in the process. This is not to say that this isn't one of the better places to live on the planet, but do't get it twisted it's tainted sorta like the home run record. I think that's what she was saying.