Some First Ladies Played Second Fiddle to Politics

“This book is not an academic book,” says author Kati Marton of “Hidden Power.” “It is an opinionated book and it is filtered through my own sensibility and my own experience in life and now as a presidential scholar. And I don’t hold back on my opinions, because they are based on thoughtful reflection.”

Here is what Marton writes about some of the 12 presidential marriages profiled:

THE NIXONS: “The most betrayed first lady in American history was married to a president who never strayed from his marriage vows. He did not know how to flirt; he rarely even noticed other women. He betrayed his wife with his only real passion, politics.”

THE FORDS: “He was unwilling to sacrifice his relationship with his wife for the office. And he knew how important it was for Betty to have a sense of her own autonomy .... He needed her and he needed her to be happy. He was--and this, too, seems refreshingly unpresidential--a little bit afraid of his wife.”

THE CARTERS: “There was something almost ruthless in Carter’s disregard of his wife’s feelings, and a chilling aspect to his dead certainty that he was doing the right thing for both of them .... When she rebelled against his demands, he ignored her. It was easier for Rosalynn to submit to his plan. Anyway, she adored him and considered herself the most fortunate woman to have landed her gifted, confident Jimmy.”

THE REAGANS: “Nancy Reagan was the most powerful first lady in terms of influence on the president since Edith Wilson; she was not the most creative nor the most compassionate first lady, but probably the most indispensable to her husband .... The famous and much mocked gaze that she fixed on him when he spoke seemed to make this detached man perform at maximum capacity.”