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Joe Biden’s Wife

March 8, 2012 by · Comments Off on Joe Biden’s Wife 

Joe Biden’s Wife, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, visited Camp Pendleton on Friday — watching how Marines train for Afghanistan and how combat-wounded Marines are cared for when they return.

Dr. Biden arrived Friday morning, touring the Infantry Immersion Trainer and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal facilities, accompanied by Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

She said she was impressed with the realism of the Infantry Immersion Trainer, a faux-Afghan village where young Marines are prepared to patrol Afghan villages and interact with civilians but be on guard for insurgents.

“The sights, sounds, and smells — everything is so different than what they’re used to,” she said.

Later she was joined by her husband at the Wounded Warrior Battalion-West facility, meeting wounded Marines and their family members. The visit was part of the Joining Forces Initiative, Dr. Biden’s effort with First Lady Michelle Obama to encourage public support for military members and their families.

The Wounded Warrior Battalion-West is dedicated to providing non-medical care for injured, ill or wounded Marines and preparing them to return to duty or to civilian life.

Wives Of Politicians

March 8, 2012 by · Comments Off on Wives Of Politicians 

Wives Of Politicians, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has acknowledged having an extramarital affair with Callista , then a congressional aide and now his third wife, while he was married to his second wife.
Political wives have been at the top of the news this week.

There’s Maria Shriver and her husband’s infidelity; Callista Gingrich, the third wife of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich; and Cheri Daniels, the politically reluctant spouse of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels who, years ago, divorced her current husband, married another man, then came back.

It’s striking, really, considering it wasn’t so long ago that the private lives of politicians were considered off limits, and even protected by the media.

Not so today. The question is asked every election: What right to privacy does a candidate’s family have – and what’s fair game?

Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, watches as her husband, Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown, gives his victory speech after being elected senator in 2006.

Jamie Rose/Getty Images
Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, watches as her husband, Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown, gives his victory speech after being elected senator in 2006.

‘A Mere Appendage’

“There is no definition of ‘fair game,’ ” says Republican political consultant Mary Matalin. “So whatever you think it is, you can disabuse yourself of any of that notion.”

Matalin has worked with some of the most powerful politicians in the country. She says being the wife of a high-profile candidate – along with the accompanying media exposure and the combing through your past – is just awful.

“It’s unfair, it’s irrational, it’s pain that’s relentless,” she says. “And if you can develop a defense for yourself, you can never develop a defense for your loved ones.”

When a nasty campaign hurts the family’s children, says Matalin, even the most steeled political wife breaks down.

There is no definition of ‘fair game.’ So whatever you think it is, you can disabuse yourself of any of that notion.

– Republican political consultant Mary Matalin

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and for the past seven years, the wife of Ohio politician Sherrod Brown.

“I was not prepared for morphing into a mere appendage of my husband’s campaign,” she says.

Schultz campaigned with her husband when he ran for the Senate in 2006. She says young staffers, or even just bystanders at political events, would tell her to cut her hair, wear other clothes or act differently onstage.

Schultz thinks this is, at least in part, plain old-fashioned sexism. “I wanna buy tickets to that show if anyone thinks they’re going to start lining up husbands and telling them how to behave,” she says.

Schultz believes that it’s up to the individual candidate and spouse to set the boundaries of their privacy, and that they should then defend them vigorously. The voracious appetite for private details, she says, doesn’t do anybody any good.

“Marriages are complicated things,” she adds. “The healthiest of marriages are complicated. And yet we want to make them caricatures.”

Delaware Primary

September 15, 2010 by · Comments Off on Delaware Primary 

Delaware Primary, Republican National Senate, John Cornyn, chairman of the Committee (Texas) on Tuesday dodged a commitment to financially support conservative Delaware Christine O’Donnell if he wins Tuesday’s primary in the Senate against Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.).

Asked if the NRSC O’Donnell financial support in the general election if they win the Castle, a popular downtown in Tuesday’s primary, Cornyn said he would not respond until the results are given

“I’m not going to answer that question because it is a hypothetical,” Cornyn said with a smile. “I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow.”

O’Donnell has the support of some leaders Tea Party, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and Sen. Jim DeMint (RS.C.), but critics say it would be a weaker candidate than the Castle Newcastle against County Executive Chris Coons, the expected Democratic nominee in November.

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