In reference to politics the concept of surrogate is someone who will talk on terms of the campaign and get the candidates name out in the open. That got me thinking that the campaign surrogate tends to be the spouse. The spouse is the one who speaks great words about her husband running for presidency. This also got me thinking of how much the wives of the campaigns have to endure on the long campaign trail. Not only do the spouses give name recognition to their husbands, but they also deal with a lot of scandals and gossip in the political world. In recent years we have had to see many spouses endure their husbands cheating on them. Therefore the spouses have to decide whether or not they should stand by their man. It is very rare in politics where you see a wife as a surrogate for her husband’s campaign trail and the other way around, a husband as a surrogate for his wife’s campaign trail.
But this has happened, with former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton. In the article “In Politics, What is a Campaign Surrogate?” They discuss Bill Clinton’s campaign trail with wife Hillary saying “Bill Clinton is in a unique position for a spousal campaign surrogate, having actually served in the office his wife is running for.” Sometimes we underestimate if a couple will be able to figure out their problems, but the Clinton’s definitely did. I think it’s great that with all the speculations, and problems the Clinton’s had to deal with, they still stood by each other. A surrogate in terms of politics is quite a big deal, what do you think?
http://www.wisegeek.com/in-politics-what-is-a-campaign-surrogate.htm
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I think that it's interesting to think about the concept of an individual being a surrogate for their partner while running for a position in which they have held before. While the Clintons are unique in this aspect, there have been other individuals where this has been the case or at least similar.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it's interesting to look at what the idea of the spouse as surrogate says about politics in the United States. I would argue that it's expected that the spouse would participate in major executive level campaigns (mayors of major cities, governors, presidents).
In an event where the spouse did not openly participate in the campaign, one could believe that it would negatively affect the campaign. It would indicate that things are not well on the home front, which would cause problems during the time that the individual is in office.
Just a thought.
-JL