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December 2, 2008 12:16:18 PM CST

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Candidates' Mates Have Us Running

Posted Dec 25, 07 10:30 AM CST in Politics 

(Newser) – One has a life-threatening illness. One broke up her husband's earlier marriage. Several are more charismatic, and more beloved, than their mates. Never before have candidates' spouses played such an important and unpredictable role in a presidential election, writes Emily Yoffe in the Washington Post—whether they're assets, like the articulate, passionate Michelle Obama, or liabilities, like the third Mrs. Giuliani.

In Iowa both Elizabeth Edwards and Bill Clinton have been stealing the spotlight from their supposedly better halves. The conspicuously young wives of Fred Thompson and Dennis Kucinich make them look not "more vigorous and vital but much, much older,"  Yoffe observes. And Mitt and Ann Romney seem too perfect to be real. Yoffe wishes that candidates' spouses could emulate Cécilia Sarkozy, who refused to campaign with her husband and didn't bother to vote—although that story didn't have a happy ending.

Source Washington Post

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Republican presidential hopeful former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his wife Judith Giuliani acknowledge the crowd following his speech during a campaign stop Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007, in Tampa,...   (Associated Press)
Former president Bill Clinton campaigns for his wife, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y, at Davenport Central High School in Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007. (AP...   (Associated Press)
Actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., left, and his wife Jeri Kehn, 24 years younger than the candidate, arrive for a party at the Macedonian Embassy in Washington following The White House Correspondents'...   (Associated Press)
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Election 2008 • Hillary Clinton • Bill Clinton • John Edwards • Michelle Obama • Fred Thompson • Elizabeth Edwards • Dennis Kucinich • Cecilia Sarkozy • Judith Giuliani


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