Posted on 11/10/2007 2:45:15 PM PST by naturalman1975
THIRTY-FIVE years in public life and Janette Howard has only ever been portrayed two ways.
The less flattering is the portrait of a politics-obsessed woman pulling her husband's strings and urging him on and up. The flip side is that of a woman who has forged a strong marriage and raised healthy, normal children who seem to genuinely like their parents.
But if Mrs Howard is frustrated by either portrait, she is not going to admit it. Not today, not in the middle of what is proving to be a particularly tricky election campaign.
It makes her arguably one of the toughest women in Australia to interview and today she has brought along an additional safety net -- the Prime Minister.
But the Sunday Herald Sun has a "bribe": four photos of her four-month-old grandson, Angus, and daughter Melanie.
Mrs Howard, 63, shrieks with delight. The shots were taken the previous weekend. They are a hit. Angus is the Howards' first grandchild.
As the couple settle into the comfy chairs, Mrs Howard tries to explain why she has never allowed voters to see beyond her role of wife and mother.
"There has to be another world that's yours, that's your life," she says.
"I'd watched a lot of people who had much higher profiles and what happened to their families, and it wasn't all pleasant."
But Mrs Howard says being diagnosed with cervical cancer in the first term of the Howard Government shaped her attitude to the role of PM's wife.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
They agree to photos and, as the PM fusses about, his wife takes control. She says to her husband: “You’re going to sit down in this red chair and I’m going to lean down and whisper sweet nothings in your ear.”
At last, she relaxes.
What a sweet couple!
What sweet couple LOL!
HUH?
They are very conservative and loving.
I don’t find that funny - I find it to be RARE.
NM I thought John Howard was widower I don’t know why
I am being serious dude I thought he was widower
sevenofnine says LOL on 98% of his/her posts. Also, he/she refuses to use puncuation, except for the !
They do sound like a sweet couple! Ms. McCabe, OTOH, sounds a little snarky and shrill.
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