[May 27, 2008]

The Wisconsin State Journal Bill Wineke column: Wineke: All's fair in love, war. . .and politics?

(Wisconsin State Journal, The (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 27--Are the wives and families of political candidates "fair game" when it comes to partisan criticism?

Barack Obama thinks not. He told the Republican Party in Tennessee to "lay off my wife," after the GOP started running ads suggesting Michelle Obama is unpatriotic.

The televised ads take snippets of a speech Michelle Obama made in Madison just prior to the Wisconsin presidential primary. In it, she said that "for the first time in my adult life, I'm really proud of my country" because of the enthusiasm shown by new, young voters for the political process. The Tennessee ads ignore the context and portray Obama as someone who fails to appreciate this nation's record.

The ads are fairly sleazy and certainly don't portray Obama's Madison remarks in the context they were made.

But that's what happens in politics, and Michelle Obama isn't the first presidential spouse to be subjected to unfair criticism. Democrats rejoiced in ridiculing Nancy Reagan and her propensity for designer clothes. Republicans vilified Hillary Clinton, and Pennsylvania newspaper publisher Richard Mellon Scaife essentially accused her of being a murderer. This year, Scaife endorsed her presidential ambitions. Politics makes strange bedfellows.

Eight years ago, backers of presidential candidate George W. Bush spread rumors that contender John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child (the McCains adopted a baby from Bangladesh) and suggested his wife, Cindy, is a drug addict (she once was treated for a prescription pill addiction).

Of course, Bill Clinton leaves all political spouses in his dust.

Nevertheless, there should be some line drawn between fair comment and over-the-line of propriety comment.

It's fair to ask questions about Cindy McCain's investments. Her estimated worth is more than $100 million and, because of that, her husband lives a lot better than he otherwise would. It's not fair to criticize her for past medical problems.

McCain's investments may influence her husband's decisions as president. Personal problems she has long since overcome won't.

Michelle Obama makes a lot of comments about the kind of world she thinks her husband will help create. She makes them in public.

If Barack Obama's opponents want to challenge those comments, more power to them. Running television ads taking her words out of context and using them to suggest she lacks patriotism is not only unfair, it is demeaning to the entire political process.

The Clintons, of course, are in a class by themselves. Bill is a former president. When he was president, he let his wife have a lot of influence, even assigning her the task of creating a universal health insurance program.

Hillary Clinton uses those experiences as a major source of credibility for her presidential candidacy. She has embraced the guy who suggested she murdered one of her closest friends. So, I don't know what's fair or unfair when it comes to criticizing the Clintons.

I do, however, think we're going to have to live with attacks on candidates' spouses.

We can draw the line at attacking their children (though John McCain had no trouble suggesting Chelsea Clinton was an ugly little girl). When the attacks leave truth and become sleaze, then the candidates will have to summon their own ethical standards to condemn them.

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