TORONTO – While Mitt Romney will step up for the most important speech of his Republican presidential campaign Thursday, it’s his wife who warmed the American audience up this week.
Ann Romney captured headlines Tuesday night after her 20-minute address to Republican delegates, with pundits suggesting she may be the party’s secret weapon.
The first lady waiting in the wings shed light on a softer side of Romney, a man who “laughed a lot and was nervous.”
Her words may have commanded what strategists had hoped for in mustering an approachable, relatable side of Romney, who has been dragged through the mud as being too rich and rigid, Canadian political scientists say.
In fact, candidates’ wives may be valuable along the campaign trail and using them may be a growing trend in the mudslinging political arena in the United States.
The role of the First Lady and presidential candidates’ spouses
Spouses serve two functions, according to Peter Loewen, a University of Toronto political scientist, who specializes in elections and public opinion.
“In practical terms, they often campaign on behalf of their spouse in key states and head of key audiences. In political terms, they will deliver key messages which might be more difficult, less credible or more awkward for the candidate to deliver,” he told Global News.
While she’s not as valuable to the campaign as the presidential candidate and his or her vice-president choice, she’s certainly in the forefront.
Depending on the spouse and strategists, she may take on responsibilities that are either “largely self-made” or handed to by the campaign.
They’re “social entrepreneurs” focusing on issues that are of interest to them, says Royce Koop, a political studies professor at the University of Manitoba.
For Michelle Obama, that meant championing a cause for healthy eating, Eleanor Roosevelt pushed for human rights reform, while for Nancy Reagan, her shtick was drug policy – “Just say no” – Koop says.
In other cases, a presidential wife plays prominent roles that play into a party’s platform, Koop says.
“Spouses can sometimes speak to some issues with more credibility and persuasion than their husbands. Moreover, they can take on their own initiatives that complement their spouse’s agenda,” Koop said.
Hillary Clinton, for example, took on health care reform and Laura Bush, who played a quieter, behind the scenes role, devoted time to improving literacy across the country, Loewen says.
Filling the void
A “crucial role” a candidate’s spouse plays in the mechanics of a campaign is in the humanizing of their husbands, the experts say.
They talk about their families and their private lives with openness, like Ann did in her Tuesday night delivery.
This candidness is something a candidate himself cannot do because it wouldn’t look “presidential,” Koop says.
Ryan Hurl, an American politics professor at the University of Toronto, asks readers to categorize Presidential spouses, with some being politically active and politically ambitious, such as Clinton.
On the other hand, spouses may avoid the political fray, such as Laura Bush.
Hurl says Ann very likely has more in common with Laura Bush, but she’s been pulled into the political arena to help her husband.
“. . . She is being called upon to compensate for some of Mitt Romney’s supposed weaknesses, and thus is attracting political attention in the manner of Hillary Clinton,” he explains.
Romney’s had trouble connecting directly with voters, and the Democrats have taken advantage of this weakness, presenting him as a “heartless downsizer,” Koop says.
“Bill Clinton was the master of (empathy); he could make individual Americans in their living rooms feel like he was talking directly to them when he spoke,” Koop says.
Ann, now, has been commissioned to fill that void, and bring likeability to the campaign.
Why a Canadian head of state’s private life is under wraps
As Michelle Obama appears on covers of magazines and her husband appears in Reddit chatrooms, their celebrity status is strictly an American trend.
In Canada, politicians’ wives are on the sidelines, typically on the arm of a party leader while on the campaign trail and offering little to the public.
It may be because Americans vote for a president while in Canada, they vote for a member of Parliament, Koop suggests.
“Unless you live in a few select ridings, you never even get the opportunity to vote for someone that will become prime minister,” he said.
Loewen offers a different suggestion.
“The position is not official in the way it is in the United States, and I think Canadians are generally less likely to view the prime minister in the same elevated status as Americans view the president,” he said.
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