Opinion: Spouses on the Web

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Ann Romney joined the Web world this week, launching a personal page through husband Mitt Romney‘s campaign site -- becoming the latest of the candidate’s spouses to hit the virtual campaign trail. And the site’s not bad -- starts off strong with her discussing her illness (multiple sclerosis), a level of directness that stands in stark contrast to her husband’s part of the site. Romney is a Mormon, a faith that makes many Christian evangelicals -- a key Republican constituency -- skittish. But type in ‘Mormon’ in the Romney search window and all you get are links to news stories about Romney and nothing from the candidate himself.

Ann Romney’s launch into cyberspace sent us around to the other political sites to see who’s enlisted the spouses online. Among the GOP contenders, Cindy McCain has space on her husband’s site, but there’s not much there. Her ‘Journal’ hasn’t been updated since June 13 -- as McCain’s poll numbers were sliding like a San Diego hillside. Fred Thompson‘s site doesn’t seem to have anything on his wife, Jeri, and Rudy Giuliani‘s wife, Judy Nathan, is mentioned in his bio but doesn’t have a stand-alone presence. Neither Mike Huckabee nor Ron Paul has spouse spaces on their sites.

On the Democratic side, Barack Obama‘s wife, Michelle, has a page, though it’s static -- a video introducing her and a bio but no update mechanism for the occasional public appearances she has been making. John Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, is more active in his campaign, and the main site includes a video of her. She also has her own page, though like Cindy McCain, her blog hasn’t been updated since June and there’s no calendar for her road work.

Hillary Clinton has the spouse with the biggest resume but no dedicated page on the campaign site. Bill Clinton does have a few different websites of his own, which are tied to things he’s involved in. Bill Richardson‘s site has a bio page for his wife, Barbara Richardson, but like many of the others it’s pretty static.

-- Scott Martelle