The wives — and one husband — of the 2012 presidential contenders are still learning to manage the unforgiving scrutiny that comes with their role. A spouse can be a priceless asset, validating and humanizing the candidate in voters’ eyes. But an absent spouse can raise questions, and a provocative comment from a spouse can wound the candidate or pull him or her off message at a critical juncture.
That’s what happened to Texas Gov. Rick Perry after his wife spoke to voters at North Greenville University in South Carolina a day before Perry was to unveil his energy policy. Intense and weepy at times, Anita Perry said her husband had come under withering assault in part because of his evangelical Christian faith.
“It’s been a rough month,” she said in remarks recorded by NBC News. “We have been brutalized and beaten up and chewed up in the press. We are being brutalized by our opponents and our own party. So much of that is, I think they look at him — because of his faith.”
Rick Perry defended his wife when pressed on whether he agreed with her assertion. But it was unquestionably a distraction for Perry, who had tried to restore his focus on the economy after a month of bad debate performances and slipping poll numbers.
“We look at the spouse to give us some clue as to the character of the candidate,” said Myra Gutin, a Rider University communications professor who studies first ladies. “He or she has to be circumspect, to avoid controversy as much as possible. But it’s very hard for spouses to watch their significant other go through a hard time, so they sometimes speak out about it.”
Emotional outbursts have bedeviled many candidates’ spouses over the years.
Former President Bill Clinton’s finger-wagging bursts of anger drew plenty of attention when he campaigned for Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign against Barack Obama. And Obama’s wife, Michelle, came under withering criticism that year when she told a campaign audience “for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country.”
The outcry over Michelle Obama’s comment led to an emergency retooling of her image. As first lady, she’s become a popular figure by focusing on relatively safe issues like childhood obesity, military families and harvesting a garden on the White House lawn.
Among the Republican candidates’ spouses, Ann Romney, wife of front-runner Mitt Romney, has so far managed to avoid any noticeable missteps in part because she’s been through a presidential campaign before. She’s said she feels more relaxed than she did during her husband’s 2008 race, and she projects confidence when she introduces him at campaign events.
“If they don’t pick Mitt, that’s their stupid mistake, not mine,” she often says to laughs.
Ann Romney is often credited with softening the former Massachusetts governor’s stiff image, describing him as a devoted father and husband who has stood by her during treatment for multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.
Mary Kaye Huntsman, wife of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, has been a near constant presence in New Hampshire where her husband has focused his entire campaign effort. She’s become a regular at local restaurants around the state capital, Concord, even when cameras aren’t rolling.
She approached a group of reporters at an event last week, saying “people are crying out for” her husband’s candidacy even though he’s languished in low single-digits in most polls.
“He’d rather lose than be inauthentic,” she said.
While Ann Romney and Mary Kaye Huntsman have been ubiquitous on the trail, Gloria Cain, wife of former pizza magnate Herman Cain, has been nearly invisible. With recent polls showing him surging into a virtual tie with Romney, Cain has faced questions about his wife’s absence.
“My wife and I, we have a family life, and she is maintaining the calmness and the tranquility of that family life,” Cain said Sunday on NBC television’s “Meet the Press.”
Cain told The Associated Press that his wife “is a lot more introverted than I am” but that he expects she’ll make an appearance with him around the Thanksgiving holiday in late November.
“Campaigns can be grueling, and I like my wife,” he said Saturday. “I want to keep her alive so she can hold that Bible when they swear me in as president.”
Carol Paul, Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s wife, is also an infrequent campaigner.
The absence of a spouse can be problematic for a presidential front-runner. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean learned that in 2004 when he was competing for the Democratic nomination and his wife, Judith Steinberg Dean, refused to leave her medical practice to campaign with him. She eventually did so but only after his campaign faltered in Iowa, the first nominating contest.
Struggling to gain traction, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has cast his marriage to his wife, Karen, as central to his candidacy, in which he has sought to highlight conservative social issues. The two have seven children, including a daughter born with severe birth defects. Another son died shortly after birth.
Introducing his wife at a conservative gathering earlier this month, Santorum suggested candidates should be judged on their spouses.
“When you look at someone to determine whether they’d be the right person for public office, look at who they lay down with at night and what they believe in,” Santorum told the Values Voters summit.
Spouses have caused problems for some of the candidates this year.
Marcus Bachmann proved to be a distraction for his wife, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, when he was forced to defend his Christian counseling business from claims its therapies include “curing” gay patients. Michele Bachmann has actively opposed gay rights throughout her political career, but the controversy around her husband’s clinic came as she was trying to focus her presidential bid on the economy and taxes.
Newt Gingrich this summer was pressed on why he had maintained a $500,000 line of credit at Tiffany’s, presumably to purchase expensive jewelry for his third wife, Callista. The former House speaker also left the campaign in its early months to take a Mediterranean cruise with Callista, a decision that caused most of his campaign staff to quit.
The two carried on a 6-year affair while Gingrich was married to his second wife and was pressing for Bill Clinton’s impeachment for lying about his involvement with a White House intern. For that reason, Gingrich has sought to portray his marriage to Callista as a deeply committed partnership. The couple campaigns extensively together, and Callista’s new children’s book, “Sweet Land of Liberty,” has recently become a best seller.
Until her remarks in South Carolina, Anita Perry had been a relatively low-key presence on the campaign trail as she was during her husband’s three campaigns for Texas governor. She’s often appeared with Perry at events but rarely spoke. She made an exception at a campaign event in Iowa, reminding her husband during his defense of giving in-state college tuition to children of illegal immigrants to mention that the students must be pursuing US citizenship.
“Family members always take these campaigns a little more personally than the candidates do,” Perry told NBC News when asked about his wife’s comments.
Rider University’s Gutin went further: “Mrs. Perry needs to realize that if her husband becomes the Republican nominee, this is just the beginning.”
