Oven Mitts Are Off in Clash of the First Ladies

Now that Ross Perot has snatched his toys and left in a huff, the promise of a fun-filled, contentious campaign season has evaporated . What, you might ask, are we supposed to do for fun between now and November?

Might I suggest the entertaining battle of images surrounding the First Lady and her would-be successor?

This election has been called a generational one, pitting the old-fashioned Cold Warrior against the ultimate Baby Boomer. Except for their ages, however, career politicians such as George Bush and Bill Clinton aren’t all that different. They’ve had the color and quirks wrung out of them by the blanding-down requirements of the political process. They’re both moderates masquerading as standard-bearers.

The true generation gap looms like an abyss between Barbara Bush, the 67-year-old happy homemaker, and Hillary Clinton, the 44-year-old outspoken overachiever.

For sheer amusement--and a little instruction on how Americans continue to be ambivalent about the role of women--these adjunct politicians are the ones to watch.

Their image consultants must be working hard to ensure that voters see them favorably. How else does one explain Family Circle’s Bush/Clinton chocolate chip cookie recipe contest (results to be published in November)? Who really gives a flying filbert?

The nation does, apparently. Or at least the national subconscious does. Whether we are aware of it or not, we seem to want our First Lady to be, above all, a lady. (Ladies bake cookies. They don’t set policy.) And although we can be reasonably certain that Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Clinton are not really as they appear (Bush is tougher, Clinton softer), all we have to go on are PR and sound bites.

And so we start the homestretch of the Year of the Woman with these images planted in our minds:

Barbara Bush is America’s Grandma. Always there for her family (and yours, too!). She is natural and uncontrived, the product of a generation of women who knew what they were supposed to do and did it without complaining. With her campaign for literacy, she appears to be the essence of domesticity--the political area in which her husband is weakest. She seems aloof from the affairs of government. To many, this is comforting.

Mrs. Bush has elevated self-deprecation to an art form. This can be construed as endearing modesty or reflexive self-preservation born of the fact that she looks as if she could be the mother of the man she’s married to. Whatever the motivation, we like this in a well-bred woman. It means that she doesn’t think she’s better than the rest of us.

Barbara, in no need of rehabilitation, will maintain her low-key approach.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is the Lawyer with the Razor-Like Retorts. She is a hard-driving career woman, a feminist who took her husband’s last name only to help him win reelection to the governorship of Arkansas. She is prickly, articulate and sure to be a major influence on her husband should he win the election. To many, this is worrisome.

Mrs. Clinton doesn’t speak ill of herself, and if she did, you probably wouldn’t believe she meant it anyhow. She offended country music fans with her disparaging remark about standing by her man, and she offended housewives with her disparaging remark about not staying home to bake cookies and have teas. Aha! we say, she thinks she’s better than the rest of us! (“I can assure you, in spite of your education, you will find me to be just as bright as yourself,” Tammy Wynette responded when stung.)

Hillary, who needs some softening, will be muzzled and feminized. (Yes, she bakes cookies! And she’s mom to 12-year-old Chelsea!)

A recent U.S. News & World Report poll asked whether Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Clinton help or hurt their husbands’ campaigns. Seventy-nine percent of respondents said Mrs. Bush helps; only 38% said Mrs. Clinton helps.

What we have here is an expectation gap.

It’s not that we mind a woman who is an accomplished attorney, who out-earns her husband, or who has been a dedicated children’s advocate for 20 years. What we mind is that she is unabashed about her involvement in her husband’s business. That just isn’t lady like.

And even though a recent spate of news stories has focused on Barbara Bush’s behind-the-scenes political involvement--the New Republic went so far as to call her a “stealth Nancy in Keds”--we don’t really believe it: Look at her! She’s no Nancy!

With so many women running for elective office this year, upsetting tradition as they go, maybe we want our First Lady--who is, after all, unelected--to be nothing more than First Helpmate. Sure, there’s a little wiggle room. She can be First Grandma (like Bush), or First Fan (like Nancy Reagan), or perhaps First Fashion Plate (like Jackie Kennedy).

We just don’t seem to be ready for an unabashed First Partner.