Running Mates: the Image and Reality of the First Lady Role.

• Author: Dowd, Maureen

Running Mates: The Image and Reality of the First Lady Role Running Mates: The Image and Reality of the First Lady Role. Ann Grimes. William Morrow, $21.95. After Fortune did a story on "trophy wives"--the phenomenon in which wealthy businessmen reward themselves the second time around with lovely younger wives who have glamorous careers--Michael Kinsley, the mordant columnist and television debater, mused about what the Washington equivalent of a trophy wife would be.

"In politics," suggested Kinsley, "a trophy wife is the older first wife who doesn't have a career. The fact that these guys stay married to the same woman for 30 years is the trophy."

If New York trophy wives are sleek superwomen like fashion designer Carolyn Roehm, wife of Wall Street's Henry Kravis, and public relations expert Linda Robinson, wife of American Express Chairman James Robinson, Washington trophy wives are stalwarts like Helena Schultz, Jane Weinberger, and Barbara Bush.

Political wives are a fault line in our society; they reflect a contradictory and ambivalent range of feelings about women's shifting roles. We use the political wife to gauge the character of the candidate in times when character counts more than ever. We want our first ladies to have charisma and don't want them to meddle in Cabinet meetings, arrange summit schedules according to the position of Uranus, or distract the president with any Valley-of-the-Dolls or conflict-of-interest problems.

No one is sure how much independence is expected from mates any more or how much will be tolerated by the electorate. Journalist Susan Riley of The Ottawa Citizen wondered, "What is the political wife saying about women, about marriage, about the way power is distributed in our society? It sounds as if she is saying that women are status symbols, possessions, mirrors for the men they live with. But aren't those days over?"

As Ann Grimes documents in her new book, those days are far from over.

It is no accident that the most famous rehabilitation center in the country for drugs and alcohol bears the name of a former first lady. Ever since the days of Mary Todd Lincoln and Edith Wilson, first ladies have been going nuts and usurping presidential power. But America still clings to the old-fashioned image of wives as loyal, well-balanced helpmates. America loves to glamorize the role of first lady for the same reason we love Princess Diana: we are still royalists at heart. Someone must represent the...