Did it surprise you that all of the remaining Republican presidential hopefuls think their current wives would make suitable first ladies? (I say “current” in deference to Newt Gingrich’s prior two wives, the second of which he left because he reportedly did not feel she was fit enough to hang around with him in the White House, the way he feels about current squeeze Callista.)
During last night’s 19th GOP presidential primary debate, the candidates were asked why their wives would make great first ladies. I turned off the television right before they answered, reasoning it would be fluff. But when I viewed it this morning (here’s a link: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/26/gop-candidates-gush-about-their-wives-gingrich-points-out-callista-is-artistic/), I realized there was more insight into the candidates from their responses than from almost anything else they said last night or in prior confrontations.
Ron Paul had the least to say about his wife of 54 years, with another anniversary coming up February 1. Carol has been a mother to their five children and grandmother to 18. Paul’s “aw, shucks” attitude reflected his homespun values. He plugged the Ron Paul Cookbook she authored.
Mitt Romney’s condescension of the common man came through immediately. After Paul took just 19 seconds to praise his wife, Romney started his 87-second dissertation by saying he would take a little more time and be more serious. To his credit (?), he quickly realized his gaffe and apologized to Paul for dissing his response. Ann Romney, he said, is a real champion and fighter, having survived multiple sclerosis and breast cancer. Unspoken, but clearly obvious to anyone who has followed Gingrich’s marital history, is Romney’s allegiance to his wife of 42 years, while Gingrich walked out on his first two wives during their periods of illness (cancer and multiple sclerosis). Romney also used his wife’s beliefs to encourage marriage before babies.
Newt Gingrich came off as the Uriah Heep of presidential prospects, pandering to one and all. Earlier in the debate Romney accused him of shifting his message and promising multi-million programs based on the states he was visiting. Now, answering CNN’s Wolf Blitzer’s question, Gingrich fawned over all the wives, acknowledging their credentials to be first lady (of course, he doesn’t believe their husbands would make great presidents, compared to him, that is).
For 80 seconds he gushed over Callista, his wife of 11 years, and her artistic bent, saying she would encourage the study of arts in education. How that jibes with budget-slashing efforts across the country to remove art and music programs from school curricula was not addressed. But Gingrich did manage to slip in a veiled thrust at current first lady Michelle Obama when he said his wife was “very patriotic about American exceptionalism.”
Passion has been one of the hallmarks of Rick Santorum’s candidacy. It clearly came out when talking for two minutes, two seconds about his wife of more than 20 years (by the way, CNN, would it have been too much trouble to display a still picture of Karen in her absence from the debate audience?). The Santorums have gone through a lot—one of their eight children dying two hours after birth, their youngest suffering from a genetic disorder.
Santorum speaks from the heart when he espouses family and religious values. No one can judge personal decisions made by another, but I found myself wondering about Karen Santorum’s drive and career—a neo-natal intensive care nurse for nine years who went on to earn a law degree. “And then when she got married, she gave that up, she walked away and walked into something that she felt called to do, which was to be a mom and to be a wife,” said Santorum.
I’m a little uncomfortable with anybody “called to do” something.
On another personal note, Gilda and I will celebrate 39 years of marriage tomorrow. As I’m not running for president, she has no chance of becoming the nation’s first lady. She’ll just have to continue her role as first lady (and chief executive) of our household.
Showing posts with label American exceptionalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American exceptionalism. Show all posts
Friday, January 27, 2012
Friday, January 14, 2011
American Exceptionalism
It’s a measure of our society that we grieve as a nation when just six people are murdered and 14 others are injured on an otherwise normal Saturday morning.
How quaint. How extraordinary. How exceptional, when across the world life seemingly goes easily on when dozens, even hundreds, are killed daily in barbaric ways. Mass deaths have become matter of fact in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and places we couldn’t find on a map if we were given their exact longitudes and latitudes.
Just six people died in Tucson. Not a famous person among them, though federal judge John M. Roll did have an important job, albeit no longer as full of potential as the life that Christine Taylor Green had ahead of her.
Of course, it is not the deaths but the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that has transformed evil into an act of domestic terrorism, an assault on our national image as a country that settles disputes at the ballot box and not on the firing range.
But it was the random, senseless death of Christina that wrenched our emotions. It would take a heartless person indeed not to mist up at the thought of a life snuffed out so prematurely after just nine years. You would have to be an automaton not to choke up, as President Obama did, when recalling her accomplishments and joy in participating in the everyday cycle of activities that compose a child’s existence—school, Little League, climbing a tree, playing make believe. It was only when she stepped across the threshold into the adult world that she became a victim of our demons.
Americans like to think we are better than the rest of the world, that we place a higher value on life than other cultures. Each soul is more worthy of grace here in the U.S. than in countries that glorify suicide bombers with sex-laden trips to heaven.
In truth, we respect our fellow man, woman and child only in the aftermath of tragedy. We cut corners to make a profit. Mine safety, for example, is too often overlooked until miners are trapped or entombed underground; food processing workers toil in unsanitary conditions, their hazardous output shipped to an unsuspecting consuming public; oil platforms are planted in waters without adequate safeguards for the crews who work them, the sea life surrounding them and the millions who live and work on the shores nearby.
Americans care more for spectacle than prevention. A symbolic funeral, a national catharsis, then back to normalcy.
How is it that a person kicked out of community college for aberrant behavior, a person rejected by the military, a person with known anti-social tendencies, can easily and legally purchase a gun? How is it that we allow any person to legally buy large capacity bullet clips that have no real purpose other than to mutate ordinary guns into killing machines? Can we honestly say we value life more than other nations when some 30,000 Americans every year are killed by guns and thousands more are wounded?
Our gun-loving ethos surely is a dark side of American exceptionalism.
How quaint. How extraordinary. How exceptional, when across the world life seemingly goes easily on when dozens, even hundreds, are killed daily in barbaric ways. Mass deaths have become matter of fact in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and places we couldn’t find on a map if we were given their exact longitudes and latitudes.
Just six people died in Tucson. Not a famous person among them, though federal judge John M. Roll did have an important job, albeit no longer as full of potential as the life that Christine Taylor Green had ahead of her.
Of course, it is not the deaths but the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that has transformed evil into an act of domestic terrorism, an assault on our national image as a country that settles disputes at the ballot box and not on the firing range.
But it was the random, senseless death of Christina that wrenched our emotions. It would take a heartless person indeed not to mist up at the thought of a life snuffed out so prematurely after just nine years. You would have to be an automaton not to choke up, as President Obama did, when recalling her accomplishments and joy in participating in the everyday cycle of activities that compose a child’s existence—school, Little League, climbing a tree, playing make believe. It was only when she stepped across the threshold into the adult world that she became a victim of our demons.
Americans like to think we are better than the rest of the world, that we place a higher value on life than other cultures. Each soul is more worthy of grace here in the U.S. than in countries that glorify suicide bombers with sex-laden trips to heaven.
In truth, we respect our fellow man, woman and child only in the aftermath of tragedy. We cut corners to make a profit. Mine safety, for example, is too often overlooked until miners are trapped or entombed underground; food processing workers toil in unsanitary conditions, their hazardous output shipped to an unsuspecting consuming public; oil platforms are planted in waters without adequate safeguards for the crews who work them, the sea life surrounding them and the millions who live and work on the shores nearby.
Americans care more for spectacle than prevention. A symbolic funeral, a national catharsis, then back to normalcy.
How is it that a person kicked out of community college for aberrant behavior, a person rejected by the military, a person with known anti-social tendencies, can easily and legally purchase a gun? How is it that we allow any person to legally buy large capacity bullet clips that have no real purpose other than to mutate ordinary guns into killing machines? Can we honestly say we value life more than other nations when some 30,000 Americans every year are killed by guns and thousands more are wounded?
Our gun-loving ethos surely is a dark side of American exceptionalism.
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