Carefully Crafted Cloak of Privacy Surrounds Children of Candidates

They had been so successful at staying out of the spotlight that not long ago, a Texas newspaper noted most reporters in Austin didn’t even know what they looked like. Then their father ran for president.

Although 18-year-old twins Barbara and Jenna Bush have been able to roam the Republican National Convention here unrecognized by most people, their years spent just under the public radar screen may be coming to an end. On Monday, the college-bound teens watched their mother give her first national speech from seats far across the meeting hall. It was symbolic of the distance their parents have said they will maintain throughout the campaign.

Still, they were set to be on hand again Thursday night--along with dozens of extended family members--to watch their dad, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, deliver his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.

But don’t expect to see the twins on the campaign trail.

The tension between the right to privacy and the public’s expectations to see not only the candidate but the candidate’s family has existed for years. Political leaders say it is difficult to balance family responsibilities and public duties. On the campaign trail, Bush tells supporters that his family comes first. But, he adds he is not unaware of the conflict between being a candidate and being a father. Bush says he hopes his girls understand that service to country is also a priority.

As the son of a former president, he has seen firsthand that the higher you climb in politics, the harder it gets to keep family life private.

“Families make presidents more human,” said Stacy Cordery, an associate professor of history at Monmouth College in Illinois. “Ultimately they can’t help but be used because in this democracy you can’t separate the professional president from the man he is: The father, stepfather, the uncle, the husband.”

But though some family anecdotes are spoon-fed to the media for public consumption, others are never mentioned.

It is one area where both parties agree, especially where minor children are involved. Everyone from the Bushes to the Gores to delegates on the Philadelphia convention floor cite Bill and Hillary Clinton’s approach to raising daughter Chelsea outside the public eye as an example of how to do it right.

But this year, scrutiny of candidates’ children--adult or otherwise--may have a sharper edge. The selection of Dick Cheney as Bush’s running mate has focused attention on Cheney’s 31-year-old daughter, Mary, who is said to be gay but has never made a formal, public statement to that effect. She has appeared this week with her parents in the convention hall, frequently seen talking to her father.

Though the circumstances usually are far less charged, the parental instinct to protect seems strong for many politicians. Among the Bush, Cheney and Gore families, there are seven daughters and a son. That’s not counting any children of Gore’s yet-unnamed running mate.

The Bushes have appealed for a “zone of privacy” for their teens, who are set to go off to college in a few weeks. From SAT scores to boyfriends to opinions expressed around the dinner table, both parents on occasion have made personal appeals to reporters to keep details out of print.

“Gov. and Mrs. Bush appreciate the way the media have respected their daughters’ privacy and hope they will continue to do so,” said Scott McClellan, a Bush spokesman. “Their daughters are entitled to their private lives.”

As for the Gores, with the exception of 26-year-old daughter Karenna Gore Schiff, who has played a key role in her father’s campaign as an advisor on issues including youth outreach, the children--Kristin, 23, Sarah, 21, and Albert, 17--stay in the wings. Until now, the Gore children, like most vice presidential children, have faced less scrutiny than the offspring of presidential candidates. “Early on they let the kids decide whether or not they want to participate,” said Tipper Gore’s spokeswoman, Michelle Kucera.

Of course, that’s not to say the Gores and the Bushes never talk about their children. They just prefer to do it on their own terms. The vice president has spoken emotionally about how Albert was struck by a car a decade ago and how that near-fatal accident changed Gore as a man. In her remarks at the convention the other night, Laura Bush told a story of how her girls would play with their dad, would literally “hop on pop” when he was reading the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. .

For some observers, the use of children when it suits political purposes seems to contrast with the stiff-arm approach the elected officials give the press and public the rest of the time. “If you use your children as political props, you’re going to have to answer the derivative questions,” said Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. Then again, he doesn’t have to worry about the issue because he has never married nor had children.

For either the Bush or the Gore offspring, November may be a turning point. Depending on whose father goes all the way to the White House, chances are that most Americans will be able to pick the respective children out of a crowd. Like the children of royalty, those of sitting presidents have always held our fascination.

Amy Carter’s wedding picture appeared in People magazine nearly two decades after her father left the Oval Office. When Tricia Nixon married Edward Cox in the White Rose Garden, the ceremony made headlines.

Susan Ford even wrote columns for Seventeen magazine while her father was president. Her mother, Betty, scandalized the public when she said she wouldn’t be surprised if Susan smoked marijuana or had an affair. Of course, that was in the 1970s.

Still, Ford’s comments were a rare unscripted moment when it comes to presidential children. Control is key. The Kennedys may have allowed a photographer to snap heartwarming shots of John-John playing under the desk in the Oval Office, but Jackie also had a special outdoor space built so her young children could play without onlookers gawking.

Achieving that balance is something nearly everyone--even the Republican faithful attending the convention this week--say the Clintons have done admirably. Chelsea had the misfortune of being thrust into the public eye at the peak of adolescence--at a stage when most of us still cringe if we catch a glance of our old selves in school photos.

Chelsea recently announced that she is taking time off from Stanford University to enjoy the last months of her father’s presidency and help her mother campaign for the New York Senate seat. The young curly haired girl who has grown up on the edges of the public eye, finally seems ready for center stage.

And considering the antics of some presidential children in the past, perhaps the current candidates should be grateful for their relatively well-behaved, well-mannered children. After all, Theodore Roosevelt had this to say about his famous daughter Alice: “I can either run the country or control Alice, not both.”