Posted on 02/02/2005 4:20:46 PM PST by naturalman1975
Laura Bush has started her second term as first lady with astonishingly high popularity ratings among both Republicans and Democrats. What does this say about the US? Sharon Krum reports.
There is a character on the television show Desperate Housewives who has become both a joke and the object of some speculation among the chattering classes. Perfectly coiffed, perpetually smiling, she is a disciple of the great American dream. Was she, as the creators suggest, inspired by those Stepford wives of suburbia, or by a certain spouse resident in the White House? They laugh and wink and feel awfully clever - but, in reality, the joke is on them.
Though they turn up their noses at the presidential wife who happily plays second fiddle and gazes adoringly at her husband, the fact is, as Laura Bush enters her second term as first lady she does so wrapped in the kind of popularity that is normally reserved for Julia Roberts or J-Lo.
Laura Bush's approval rating stands at 71 per cent - remarkably, she even has a 55 per cent approval among Democrats - making her more popular than her husband (52 per cent) and streets ahead of Hillary Clinton when she entered her second term with 47 per cent. The icing on the cake for Bush, 57, was the staggering 79 per cent who told pollsters she had "improved the image of the office of first lady".
Which is what exactly? And why are Americans so in love with a woman who rarely ventures an opinion, declares her primary role as that of a wife and bristles at the idea of exerting any influence over her husband's frankly reckless policy decisions - indeed, loyally defends them?
"Despite the progress of women on the American landscape," says Marie Wilson, president of the White House project, an advocacy group for women in politics, "we are still a very conservative country. We want our first lady to embody the ideal of wife, mother and helpmate. Laura, who quit her job as a librarian after she married, has not claimed any public authority or revealed any ambitions beyond those she harbours for her husband.
"Contrast her stance with that of Hillary Clinton, a lawyer who was vilified for having an agenda - she undertook to reform US health care - and opinions of her own."
Barbara Burrell, associate professor of political science at Northern Illinois University, says that what Americans want in a first lady is basically a beauty queen. "They want the traditional hostess to meet and greet, and, like a beauty queen, to have a platform." In Bush's case, her causes are controversy-free literacy and education.
"But God forbid they should become a policy adviser like Hillary or Rosalynn Carter," says Burrell. "We still have a huge problem in this country with women and power. Simply put, we don't like women either wielding power or being proximate to it."
A frustrated Hillary Clinton, whose husband once announced she would be his "co-president", admitted as much, remarking of her tumultuous tenure, "There is something about the position itself which raises in Americans' minds concerns about hidden power, about influence behind the scenes, about unaccountability. Yet if you try to be public about your concerns and your interests, then that is equally criticised."
Bush has no such problem. Though she married into a political family, Bush stayed on the sidelines when George campaigned, insisting she had no interest in politics. Shy by nature, she preferred to retreat into books and later enveloped herself in motherhood (the twins, Jenna and Barbara, are now 22) rather than hit the stump. It was only during the last election cycle that she began speaking publicly on a regular basis, but it was always to toe the Administration line. She rarely offers a glimpse into her world.
"One reason Laura is so popular is because she is temperamentally quiet and not interested in having any attention," says Ann Gerhart, author of The Perfect Wife, a biography of Bush. "She has causes she champions, but she does it very quietly. She also projects this steadiness and calm, and I think especially after September 11 there was a feeling that the country needed a comforter-in-chief." Indeed, with the country reeling from the attacks, Laura's fixed smile, soothing voice (advising parents to tend to their children) and calm demeanour proved exactly what the doctor ordered. The country wanted a "mommy", not some outspoken feminist sister, to soothe them.
Historically, says Burrell, Americans have always demanded that their first ladies be trapped in some kind of 1950s amber. When asked how she saw her role, Mamie Eisenhower's classic response, "Ike runs the country and I turn the chops", won deep approval. Barbara Bush, wife of George Bush snr, was similarly lauded when she took up her role as "grandmother" to the nation. Completely apolitical, her attentions were solely attuned to her husband and her dogs. By contrast, Nancy Reagan was excoriated for using astrologers to chart her husband's schedules and soliciting funds to buy new china, while Hillary Clinton was nailed to the cross for daring to work alongside her husband.
With America in the throes of a seismic political and religious shift to the right, the reasons for Laura Bush's popularity among church-going soccer moms is not neuroscience. But what is remarkable is her broad appeal among Democratic women, who only four years ago were chanting "Hillary, Hillary" at fund-raisers.
"It's actually not that hard to understand," says Gerhart. "Because she is so inscrutable, people can project on to her whatever traits they value. So if you are conservative, you see someone who gave up her career and devoted herself to the role of wife and mother. If you are a professional woman, you see someone who worked in poor schools, was a librarian, and had no interest in getting married until she was 30. Plus it has also been suggested that while she will never cross the party line publicly, in private her opinions may be more moderate than those of her husband."
In fact Democrats giddily trade stories about the other side of Laura Bush, that she once admitted to being pro-choice (asked about it since, she says her opinion shouldn't matter), how she disagrees with her born-again husband on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. They tell themselves that under that helmet head and powder-blue suit she really is a force to be reckoned with, repeating the well-known story that when George was drinking she gave him the ultimatum "Jim Beam or me" and he capitulated.
The President himself admitted last week that Laura continues to upbraid him in private when necessary. After declaring in 2001 that he wanted to catch Osama bin Laden "dead or alive", he returned to the White House to find his wife infuriated by his cowboy, gunslinger attitude. "She chewed me out right after that," he said. So they figure the former librarian who reads compulsively - unlike her husband, who admits he does not read newspapers - cannot really be a Stepford wife.
But the biggest weapon she has up her sleeve, says Marie Wilson, is the way she has (courtesy of her spin doctors in the White House) framed her husband's disastrous invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq in ways that make Americans - women in particular - feel uplifted and empowered.
"After years of being treated as virtual prisoners in their homes by the Taliban, the women of Afghanistan are now able to walk outside their houses without a male escort," she said, boasting of the success of her husband's response to 9-11. What woman wouldn't respond to that message?
In fact, one pundit suggested Laura Bush was the administration's fabric softener, and it appears she is. Recently, when Nancy Reagan criticised President Bush for limiting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, Laura was deployed to put out that fire too, warning the public that no cure via stem cells was remotely imminent.
Immediately after George Bush won the election, he gloated that he had earned new political capital which he fully intended to spend. Given the disaster of Iraq and his love affair with corporate America, the idea that he would push deeper into his agenda caused shudders throughout Democratic America.
But Laura Bush, by extension, has earned capital as well, and there are some who would like to see her, as opposed to her husband, really go shopping. "Yes, education is her platform, but to what extent has that generated any kind of equality of education and improved it any large measure?" asks Burrell. "She could really push for change."
"I would hope she would recognise she has a powerful platform and four more years to stand on it, and that she would work to be as effective as she can be," adds Gerhart.
But Marie Wilson has bigger goals. "I would love her to become more activist, because every first lady, like Hillary, like Cherie [Blair], who acts outside the mould builds the possibility of more women having voices in power. When first ladies speak up, they become bridges to another kind of role for women."
And to think the Library School at UCLA successfully disinvited her from speaking at their commencement (first librarian to ever live in the White House, fellow member of the ALA)
Gee, no bias there.
Aint she a snotty bit-h!
Ummm... We do not elect first ladies, nor do their views on policy undergo much if any scrutiny or discussion. On what basis then would they have any right to be "more activist"?
Women can have more "voices in power" by putting themselves through the hard slog of getting elected, not by leveraging a marriage as a means to political ends.
Sure, just ask Condoleeza Rice, and she'll tell you how liberals feel about women and power. And blacks who don't toe the Democratic Party line.
These people are STILL clueless. Also, Laura Bush does NOT play second fiddle. She allows her husband to dfo the job he was elected to do. We didn't elect her president. We elected him. Twice. She is the epitome of class. THAT is why we love her so much.
He hits on exactly the reason why Laura Bush is so loved, without meaning it. She's not so arrogant as to believe that First Lady is a policy making position. She is a true partner for her husband and a great example to all. It's comforting to know the President doesn't have a wife with a big mouth and a chip on her shoulder to worry about.
The people who have a problem with women and power, of course, are the Democrats, and the proof is in their belief that somehow being the wife of the President grants a woman authority in the government. If they didn't have a problem with women and power, they wouldn't see "wife of the President" as a political job. After all, Condi Rice is Secretary of State, and guess who had a problem with that?
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LOL! The writer of this article must be one of Mullah Omar's wives.
I wouldn't DREAM of hitting the list with this while the SOTU is running........I'll bookmark it and get it later, when it won't get lost in the rush.
Thanks for the ping.
Though I agree with you, I would like to add that Hillary! was not only activist while playing the role of first lady, she attempted to create legislation...and wasn't even an elected official. How much more activist can you get. Why, then, was her approval rating so low?
I am DollyCali's friend! I used to live in Glastonbury (30 years ago) This is my very first post. I just signed up for Free Republic (and dolly is typing this).
Hey, Nutmeg. I still haven't gotten up the Inaug thread... Having trouble with pix posting.. duh. doing the html right & server is up. dolly
back to bill
You forget, she never had a real job.
"...staggering 79 per cent who told pollsters she had "improved the image of the office of first lady"."
I love Laura. She reminds me of Nancy Reagan. She understands her position as First Lady. Unlike the disgraceful, power-mad Hillary Rodham Clinton, Laura Bush is classy, elegant, intelligent, kind-hearted and obviously loves her husband very much.
Laura is beautiful.
My favorite part of the article is the "author"'s description of the U.S.'s "disastrous" invasion of Afghanistan. Which war did she see??
Also, if she's comparing Mrs. Bush to Bree from Desperate Housewives, I would say that would be a compliment (but I doubt that was what the "author" was going for). Bree is not only a Martha Stewart wannabe, but also a member of the NRA and is definitely not afraid to stand up for herself.
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