Spouses Take to the Podium for '08

May 11, 2007 — -- This year the spouses of the presidential candidates have hit the campaign ground running.

Americans are already familiar with the faces of Michelle Obama, Ann Romney and Elizabeth Edwards: They've made multiple stops in Iowa and New Hampshire. They've held solo campaign events, and some even have their own communications team. And let's not forget that in this campaign another political spouse is out on the campaign trail, one who is no stranger in the homes of Americans: former President Clinton.

There's little doubt the spouses have taken on more of a role than simply standing beside the candidate at the podium. This time around, they've taken the podium.

The Campaign Trail: A Full-Time Job?

Political spouses are no longer just cheerleaders on the sidelines. They are successful women -- and this year there's a man -- in their own right, who have to balance career, family and the expectations that go along with being a political spouse.

Michelle Obama, the wife of presidential candidate Barack Obama, has already had her fair share of press for balancing career and her role as political spouse and mother.

She has alluded to the fact that she intends to take a full leave of absence sometime soon. "That's still being worked out. I can do a lot, but I can't do everything," she said on her first solo campaign stop -- New Hampshire -- in March.

Michelle Obama has upped her campaign stops around the country since her first visit to the Granite State. She's been on the trail in Iowa, stopped again in New Hampshire and heads to South Carolina next week.

Despite the increased frequency of campaign events, the campaign insists that she's still at her job part-time.

Her trips to New Hampshire have been day trips; she's flown from the family home in Chicago in the morning and returned the same day. She's often said that she believes it's important to be with her daughters for breakfast, and be home again at night.

Some spouses are determined to help their partners win, even if they're combatting a terminal illness. John Edwards has pressed on with his campaign, with wife Elizabeth at his side, even after his campaign announced that she had an incurable form of bone cancer.

She said she wouldn't want it any other way. "John first waited for me to say what I wanted. … He knows that I'm a fighter and unlikely to give in to this. He asked me what I wanted to do, and there was no question in my mind this was something we dedicated ourselves to a long time ago," Elizabeth Edwards has said.

And she's not the only one pressing on in a spouse's campaign despite daunting responsibilities and obstacles. Ann Romney, the wife of Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who's seeking the Republican nomination, has a whopping five sons, five daughters-in-law and 10 grandchildren. She also has multiple sclerosis.

Carolyn Weyforth, deputy communications director for the Romney campaign, said, "[Ann Romney] spends as much time as possible on behalf of her husband out on the campaign trail."

To see her family, Ann Romney coordinates campaign stops coincide with family time, getting family members to come out on the stump with her.

President Bill Clinton is a political spouse of a different sort. Many are watching closely how the "man from Hope" will be used on the campaign trail. As a former president his political impact is huge. His balancing act is not purely between family or another job. It's a balancing act at the strategic level. At issue is how much the campaign of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, will dispatch him out on the campaign trail.

So far, President Clinton has participated in fundraisers and speeches with his wife, but has been careful to not overshadow her as a candidate. His defined role, as a political spouse, not a candidate this time, is still yet to be seen.

Great Expectation

But do candidates' spouses really have a choice in whether they take an active role on the campaign trail? If they don't actively participate, does this hurt the campaign?

The fact that so many of the 2008 candidates' spouses have been visible on the trail from an early point could be because of a lesson learned from past elections.

"When the public looks at a candidate more seriously, they do look at his spouse," said Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

A case in point was Howard Dean's run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. His wife, Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean, chose to stay home in Vermont and continue her medical practice rather than join her husband on the campaign trail.

The decision made sense to many -- at first. Howard Dean's poll numbers were in the single digits, but as his numbers rose, voters -- including many of Dean's supporters -- questioned why his wife wasn't front and center.

"There was a great thirst to see Dr. Steinberg on the campaign trail from Howard Dean's supporters," said Tom Hughes, Dean's former field director in New Hampshire and currently the executive director of Democracy for America, Dean's political organization.

"I think people associate with the candidate, and they're very interested in what makes the candidate tick," Hughes said.

The fact that the Dean campaign didn't provide that for their voters was seen as unusual.

"It was more and more peculiar as his chances of success increased," said Debbie Butler, one of the New Hampshire co-chairs for the Howard Dean campaign. "You are trying to figure out who these people are and what they're made of, and their family is important. Who she was was part of his story."

Dean's wife did join him toward the tail end of his campaign, meeting up with him in Iowa for an interview together with Diane Sawyer for "Primetime." It was perhaps an attempt to salvage Dean's image with voters, but it was too little too late.

While people will never vote for a candidate based solely on his wife or family, the family helps create the image of the candidate, according to Bowman. The difference now is that political spouses have never had a greater opportunity to shape that image.

"Spouses can carve a role for themselves in a way that was not true 20 or 30 years ago. They have choices about who they want to be and what they want to say," said Bowman.

Which helps to explain why the spouses of the candidates are out there so early, so soon.

Butler, who currently supports the candidacy of Obama, said that crowds love Michelle Obama.

"She's been out there much more and she's terrific. And part of that is because she's flushing out the story of who Barack Obama is," she said.

The Spouses

No longer in the shadows or standing quietly by the podium, political spouses are on the front lines of the campaign, influencing the public's perception of candidates.

These political wives -- and one husband -- go through their daily battles in front of TV cameras and in front of crowds. They give speeches while perhaps worrying about their children's homework. They may have to miss dinner with their families, or school plays.

Their words matter, their presentation matters, and ultimately their mistakes matter too. They have a huge and important impact on the campaign and help shape the way the voter's see their spouses.

They are vote makers, but they could be vote breakers too.