Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Saying I Do to Two THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET by MARGARET DICKSON Remember way back in 1992 when smart and fresh-faced, Bill and Hillary Clinton campaigned for his Presidential bid? They said America would get "two for the price of one." Both Clintons are highly educated and hard-working people, so their bargain- based but high-self-esteemed pitch made some sense, but it was — shall we say — "not well received" by voters, and they quickly dropped it. To my knowledge, no Presidential hopefuls have tried that one again, but the truth is that whoever is elected President this year will arrive at the White House with a wife who will be called our First Lady. Hers is a high-profi le role with no job description and no pay, but a role that she will be expected to perform nonetheless. The role, however nebulous, has become so formalized that the U.S. Secret Service refers to the First Lady in code as FLOTUS, the partner of her husband POTUS. Let's take a look at the women who would be our First Lady, starting with our incumbent, Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama is a Princeton and Harvard trained corporate attorney turned tiger mom, who fi ercely protects her two young daughters from the prying cameras of the media. In her spare time, she promotes good health, especially for children, and stresses the importance of fresh and high quality food and exercise. She has championed self-esteem for girls and young women and, with Second Lady — yes, that term is used to identify the wife of the Vice President — Jill Biden, has raised the profi le of military families to national prominence by visiting military communities all across the nation, including ours. Fashion-wise — no First Lady in my memory has escaped this scrutiny — our fi rst post-Baby Boomer First Lady has appropriately highlighted the American fashion industry from high end and high fashion designers to the mass chain outlets the rest of us patronize, including Target. Obama Now for other FLOTUS hopefuls: Callista Gingrich appears to have received the most media attention among Republican wives, including a profi le in The New Yorker. Perhaps this is because she is by her husband's side at virtually all times, with an adoring smile and a hairdo that might not have moved during Hurricane Fran. (The New Yorker quotes her hairdresser as saying that she has had no requests for "the Callista" but expects to should Newt Gingrich become President.) Or perhaps it is because she is 23 years her Gingrich husband's junior, becoming his third wife after a six-year extra-marital affair which her parents learned about when reporters left messages on their answering machine. She grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, studied classical music in college, met her future husband when she was a Congressional staffer, has an acknowledged taste for baubles from Tiffany and Company, and has written a children's book in which Ellis the Elephant travels through American history. Ann Romney has spent years in politics, having met her husband in elementary school and married him 42 years ago when she was 19, having converted to the Church of Latter Day Saints while Mitt was completing his Mormon missionary responsibilities in France. The couple, who by all accounts, are close partners in both their public and private lives, have fi ve adult sons and 16 grandchildren. Always polished in her public appearances, Ann Romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998 and says she has coped with her condition through horseback riding and through a mix of traditional and non-traditional medicine. Romney She has also had a breast cancer scare. As the First Lady of Massachusetts, she concentrated on faith-based initiatives and issues involving children and teenage pregnancy. Protective of her husband, Romney has acknowledged not enjoying hearing criticism of her husband, but says "you learn to just take a deep breath." Carol Paul and Karen Santorum have been far less visible on the campaign trail, so their stories are less documented. Like Romney, they both have had long marriages — the Pauls 55 years with fi ve children and the Santorums, who are in their early 50s, have seven children. Paul has been a homemaker, and Santorum is both a nurse and an attorney who currently practices law in Virginia. Both support their husbands' Presidential aspirations. Santorum has been criticized for a romantic relationship she had before her marriage with a much older man, a doctor who was an abortion provider. Information on their fashion tastes was unavailable. So there we go with the women who would be FLOTUS, even though we do not vote on them. Whoever she is, she is part of a package, and her causes and her tastes will become part of our national conversation, maybe even our national agenda. For better or worse, our First Lady sets a tone. VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL Surf and Turf for Two for only $39.95 Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer, Up & Coming Weekly, COM- MENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-3pm Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! 6 UCW FEBRUARY 1-7, 2012 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM