The battle of the wives

Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain are having completely different experiences on the campaign trail as wives of the two leading presidential candidates.

Michelle Obama was popularly known as "the closer" on the campaign trail in Iowa. She usually went to areas after her husband had visited to give a more direct, intimate and personal "testimonial" of her husband's background. She painted sides of Obama that people often didn't know about.

Cindy McCain describes herself as her husband's closest friend. She has spoken on Iraq and Myanmar. "Mrs. McCain limits her formal role in the campaign largely to retail politics, and has usually resisted taking policy positions, criticizing other candidates publicly or making comments about the current occupant of the White House," noted David Kadlubowski political blogger for The New York Times

"I've never been involved in day-to-day issues. It's just not me. I don't feel it's my job, and I just don't like it." Her closest thing to a political contribution to her husband's campaign Web site is a recipe for guacamole, Kadlubowski observed.

When asked about her influence on her husband's work, McCain told Newsweek, " I am trying to be a good wife. I want what he wants, what is best for him, and, then as now, that's all I want. So if I see something wrong, I am going to tell him about it. If you're asking about guiding policy, I don't do that."

Observers believe the two wives are not treated equally in the media and on the campaign trail. "Mrs. Obama has endured far more virulent attacks by her critics," New York Times reporter Alessandra Stanley noted. Stanley describes Obama as part of a tradition of strong Democratic candidates' wives -- from Rosalynn Carter and Kitty Dukakis to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Teresa Heinz Kerry. "They are almost invariably characterized by opponents as too feisty and too outspoken, a little too radical for mainstream America," she notes.

Obama and McCain are each viewed differently by the public and by various constituencies. According to a recent Yahoo/AP poll, Michelle Obama does better with unmarried people and college grads and is viewed poorly by people age 65 and up.

McCain is seen more favorably by older people, those who are married, and the more affluent, and is less well received by singles, Yahoo reports. But half of Republicans say they don't know Cindy McCain, while only 3 in 10 Democrats say that about Michelle Obama, the poll says. In addition, 8 in 10 blacks prefer Michelle Obama compared to 1 in 8 blacks who prefer Cindy McCain.

When asked about people's reactions to her head-on style of addressing issues, Obama explained on ABC's "The View" that she sometimes "wore her heart on her sleeve."

San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Ruben Navarrette examines a contradictory picture of accusations leveled against Obama over the different phases of her life. "Growing up on Chicago's South Side, Michelle was probably accused of 'acting white' because she excelled academically and went off to the Ivy League. Now -- abracadabra -- she's a Black Panther," Navarrette writes.

"How did a corporate lawyer with degrees from Princeton and Harvard and a record of bringing together whites and blacks in her position as a hospital administrator get transformed, in the minds of some, into a black militant with a chip on her shoulder and a score to settle with white America?" Navarette asks.

Although Obama has tried to avoid controversy, McCain has walked directly into it in some cases. During a recent interview with John King on CNN, Cindy McCain said that she did not think spouses should be included in political attacks. "The choice is not whether, who's going to be the best first lady -- this is about our husbands. And this is far too important to muddle it up with things like that," she said.

Earlier this year, Cindy McCain responded to Michelle Obama's statement that for the first time in her adult lifetime she was really proud of her country. McCain told an audience at a rally that she had always been proud of her country.

McCain denied her motive was political. "There was nothing planned," she said. In contrast, First Lady Laura Bush defended Michelle Obama and suggested her remarks had been misconstrued.

Unlike Theresa Heinz Kerry, Cindy McCain has not released her tax returns and vowed on NBC's "Today" show that she would "never" release them. McCain reported a personal annual income of more than $6 million for 2006, according to the Associated Press. But CBS News notes that McCain released only the first two pages of her 2006 tax returns.

Cindy McCain and the McCain children are the beneficiaries of a beer distributing fortune amassed by her parents and estimated to be worth $100 million or more, according to CBS News. She will make the decision whether to release her 2007 return "at the appropriate time," an aide told CBS.

Some reporters have observed differences in Michelle's changing role on the campaign trail. "Rather than pulling Mrs. Obama behind a curtain, her husband's campaign is pushing her farther out on stage," according to Michael Powell and Jodi Kantor of the New York Times. "She remains a charismatic presence, and when she gives her husband a fist dap or talks of him as a father, she is telling voters, this is a regular guy," they noted.

The campaign has hired Stephanie Cutter, a veteran strategist, as her chief of staff, who will seek to deflect attacks in the future. Mrs. Obama will also visit the spouses of military personnel and talk of the patriotic duty to provide these families with care and services.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) offers unsolicited advice to the potential Democratic first lady. "Mrs. Obama must stop sounding like a lawyer trying to win an argument," she said. "The trick is not pushing so hard to persuade people that Barack is the right one. All she has to do is be likable," McCaskill said.