Candidates are from Mars, candidate's wives are from…

The latest New Yorker has a cartoon by Sipress showing:

THE MARS PRIMARY

Kerry          1%

Edwards     1%

Dean           3%

Clark          .5%

Lieberman   1%

Sharpton     .5%

Kucinich     ………………………………. 93%

And hey gals, he’s single – and looking! While campaigning in NH, Kucinich joked (we think) that he’s also campaigning for a new wife.

We all know we’re voting for the candidate, not the spouse – oh hell, let’s just say wife. But there’s still a lot of focus on the candidates’ wives in the media. I was reading at Twilight Café this morning some speculation over whether Judy Dean (aka Dr. Judith Steinberg) refuses to be First Lady (as yet unconfirmed). Ellen Goodman wrote an interesting column on her recently. Goodman thinks it’s the media that’s fixated on the wives, not the voters: “Their curiosity about the candidates' wives is balanced by a belief that each woman should choose her own way.” Maybe.

There is a lot of diversity this time around, as the LA Times reports:

Before Carol Moseley Braun quit the race Thursday, the nine contenders accounted for five divorces (Kucinich's two and one each for Braun, John F. Kerry and Joe Lieberman). Also, there were two unpartnered candidates (Kucinich, Braun), two with stepchildren (Kerry, Lieberman) and one with an openly gay daughter (Dick Gephardt). Fertility treatments allowed John Edwards’ wife to have a baby after 50. Howard Dean and his wife, Judith Steinberg, practice different religions – Steinberg is Jewish; Dean views himself as a Congregationalist. Steinberg intends to continue practicing medicine even if her husband becomes president. And she and Al Sharpton's wife, Kathy Jordan, did not take their husbands' last names. Only one family seems to fit an ultra-traditional mold — Wesley K. Clark's.

One more point of interest (for those who are curious about the candidate's personal lives): There’s a story today at Salon.com (subscription required), Is America ready for the wild Kerry family? It’s a fun read: “The Heinz-Kerrys are nuts! A roiling mass of beauty, brains and bad temper, the Kerry brood is the stuff that America's infatuation with nighttime drama is made of.” Good, because the West Wing could use some shaking up. The TV show and the real one.

9:44:34 PM      trackback [] 

Patriots Super Bowl parade

Hmm. This may be how I'll be getting to my meeting this afternoon. Wouldn't you know my clients would pick today to meet - when the Patriots' parade is going on. Well, I'll be across the river - hopefully the roads over there will be okay. Then I'll just have to deal with the freezing rain due in late this afternoon. (People who work at home get to be such whiners...)

(AP photo)

12:08:46 PM      trackback []