As we all know, American presidential and vice presidential spouses usually tend to take the back seat, if, for a moment, we allow ourselves to ignore former first lady Hillary R. Clinton. Sarah Palin’s run for vice presidency may well change that, assuming the McCain/Palin campaign succeeds, that is. In a culture not used to see men acting in the background, Todd Palin’s future role may pose a series of challenges, for which he’s already positioning himself. According to The Washington Post today:
Meghan Stapleton, a McCain spokeswoman who used to serve as Palin’s press secretary, said the presence of Todd Palin has generated unwarranted criticism and that his role is in keeping with that of gubernatorial spouses in other states. “Every bit of his participating is appropriate and pertinent to his role as a spouse and as a father,” she said.
“There are definitely critics out there who will blow up his level of involvement because he happens to be a stay-at-home dad when he’s off from the slope, and he happens to be an active dad who wants to be with his kids and with his wife when he’s not on the slope,” Stapleton said.
Furthermore:
[...] But Todd Palin, 44, the ruggedly handsome four-time winner of the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race, was already an Alaska star before his wife’s election in 2006. Along with his family duties, he held two jobs, working occasional 85-hour weeks as an oil production operator for BP and, for a month each summer, as a commercial salmon fisherman in Bristol Bay. He belongs to the steelworkers union, an alliance that may partly explain his wife’s strong labor support. His Yup’ik ancestry, which traces back to his maternal grandmother, gave Sarah Palin special standing with Native Alaskans.
As we will see, the gender issue may soon prove to be a minor one, as it would appear that “First Dude”, playing an active part in his wife’s policy-making, represents interests which stand to be favoured in the event that the Republicans win the election in six weeks (that’s right: Six weeks and counting).
I’m not saying that the Obama gang is totally devoid of similar conflicts, with all probability it isn’t. I just happened to stumble upon this today. Truth be told, I’m a little disappointed that the press doesn’t seem equally eager to dig up unfortunate liaisons in the Obama/Biden campaign – even though I truly hope (but very much doubt) they’ll win the race.
Maybe an altogether different Palin would do the trick?
Via (…)