With the November US elections looming and the polls indicating that this election will be very close to call, many people are questioning whether America’s fate lies in the perfectly manicured hands of the maybe first lady. Will one of them be able to tip the scales?
Cindy McCain appears to have the perfect, white picket fence life. Yet standing next to her husband in a gown worth thousands with a faraway look in her eyes, one really does wonder if she has it all. To many a cynical eye she looks like the proverbial poor little rich girl that never grew up. Cindy was extremely reluctant to get her family involved in the presidential rat race. When her husband became senator, she refused to follow him to Washington and opted to stay at home in the hopes of raising her children with the same values that she held dear.
Throughout the entire campaign Cindy McCain has taken the back seat and behaved like the perfect businessman’s wife, pearls and all. Despite her unwillingness to get involved, or maybe because of it, I can’t help but root for her. She is a woman who is putting her husband’s dreams before her own, but that doesn’t want a share in the limelight.
Not so for the ballsy Michelle Obama who could not be more different. Michelle comes from what can only be stereotypically described as the typical, white, working class, American family, only she is Afro-American. In her thesis about being coloured she wrote; “My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my “blackness” than ever before.” Many believe that she is the power house behind Obama’s presidential campaign: her energy is notoriously boundless and she leaves nothing to chance. It has been reported that Barack’s campaigners have worried on more than one occasion that her straight-talking, no nonsense approach will be her husband’s downfall.
Watching a speech given by her I can’t help but wonder if she is the one running for President and not her husband. After all, this woman who was a senior at a law firm in Chicago whilst Barack was a newcomer, is no stranger to ambition and although the image consultants have clearly been at work trying to soften her image there is no getting away from the fact that underneath the plaid, gingham dress from Gap lies a hard as nails interior. This is a ruthless woman who has made her own rules in a man’s world.
Someone once said: show me a man’s car, house and wife and I will tell you everything about him. Maybe it is important that America paid attention to this age old adage. Whilst it is vital that the world raises strong women that are able to air their opinions and take an active part in politics shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts, surely if America wanted a female President they would have voted for Hillary?
Anna Marie Galea is a third year Law student at the University of Malta. She is a member of Insite – The Student Media Organisation – www.insite.org.mt