Married to the Job

ED: This hour we’ve been hearing stories about fears that the president has too much power and debates about the constitutional limits on that power. Now we’re going to turn to anxieties about the person beside the president and talk about perceived overreach by the first lady.

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BRIAN: In 1993, Bill and Hillary Clinton thought the American people were ready for a strong, high-powered first lady. On the campaign trail, they proposed a two-for-one special. A vote for Bill was a vote for Hillary, too. The idea that Hillary might act as a co-president made Americans more than a little nervous, and those jitters showed up quickly on the evening news.

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MALE SPEAKER: The question many Americans are asking is, what kind of first lady will she be?

FEMALE SPEAKER: She’ll also have an office among the senior staff, not on the other side of the White House where first ladies traditionally work.

MALE SPEAKER: She does not take the role as wife. She takes the role as a participant.

FEMALE SPEAKER: A strong first lady, who involves herself too deeply in policy when she’s not elected, will not be well received by the American people.

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BRIAN: And it wasn’t just the news that was absorbing public concerns about Hillary’s role as First Lady. Here’s how an MC mistakenly referred to her just after her husband’s inauguration.

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MC: Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, and the Vice–

[LAUGHTER]

The First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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BRIAN: In Bill Clinton’s first week in office, Hillary plunged into all kinds of executive decisions.

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MALE SPEAKER: First Lady doesn’t fully describe the position Hillary Rodham Clinton holds in the White House. She interviews nominees for the Cabinet. She lobbies on Capitol Hill. She runs the giant task force on health reform.

MALE SPEAKER: Some health care professionals hope that Hillary Clinton will at least follow the guideline for all physicians, the one that says, do no harm.

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BRIAN: Hillary wasn’t unique if her ability to elicit anxiety. Lisa Burns, Media Professor and First Lady Scholar, says that there’s a long history in the 20th century, a fear that first ladies will steal authority that’s really meant for their husbands and use it for themselves. That fear is exacerbated because no one really knows what it is that the first lady is supposed to do.

LISA BURNS: That’s a good question that I think most first ladies have been asking for over 200 years.

BRIAN: [LAUGHING]

LISA BURNS: Because there’s no definition of this position anywhere. It’s not in the Constitution. There’s no rule book that they’re given when they start. It’s all a matter of tradition. And a lot of it actually comes from media coverage and from public expectations.

BRIAN: But we’re especially concerned with overreach on this show, so could you generalize about when first ladies tend to be charged with overreaching their powers?

LISA BURNS: The most severe criticism of first ladies is always when they get involved in policy making. And whether they’re lobbying for legislation, whether they’re actually heading up those legislative efforts, that’s when we see, particularly the press, gets very uncomfortable with the first lady all of a sudden moving from the East Wing into the West Wing, and they’re questions about is she the power behind the throne? Is she the one who’s really running things in the White House?

BRIAN: Well, what are some examples of first ladies getting involved with policy, and what do those first ladies do to fight back?

LISA BURNS: Probably the best example from the 20th century is Eleanor Roosevelt. In September of 1941, she actually was the first first lady to assume an official government job. She was named the Associate Director of the Office of Civilian Defense. It basically was trying to prepare the public, wartime readiness, things that the public could do.

And very quickly, Congress started to get concerned. One, they questioned whether civilians should be heading up a government office. Then there started to be a lot of criticism of the people who were being hired through this program, very similar to some earlier New Deal criticism. One congressman actually said that basically the time has passed for boondoggling. If communities wish to organize dancing and calisthenics, I’m sure they can do it themselves without direction from the throne, referring to Eleanor Roosevelt and some of the people that were being appointed in these positions.

So shortly after, there was these criticisms of people who were being hired, there’s a call from Congress for Eleanor to step down. And originally she tells reporters that she’s not going to resign the post, that she has no intention of doing so, but about four days later– and this is in February of 1942– she tells reporters, I realize how unwise it was for a vulnerable person like myself to try a government job. It is a little unusual for the wife of a president to go into an official job, even if she doesn’t get any pay and pays her own travel expenses.

BRIAN: Did she say she wanted to spend more time with her family?

LISA BURNS: No. No.

BRIAN: [LAUGHING]

LISA BURNS: But basically, she ends up quitting the position. And the reason she gives is that she thinks the office has a lot of really important work to be done, and she doesn’t want her position in the criticism of it to hinder the work of the office.

BRIAN: Now what do fears of the first ladies overreach of power tell us about larger fears of executive overreach on the part of the president Himself

LISA BURNS: I think there’s always this fear that– one– particularly if someone who’s unelected– we didn’t elect her, we elected him, so who is she to head up health care reform? Or who is she to be taking on an official government role? But what’s interesting, if you look at press coverage of first ladies, particularly their legislative efforts, they often don’t talk about it as an extension of the president’s power. They see it as the power of the first lady, that the first lady is somehow carving out this position for herself. So what’s interesting is their husbands manage to avoid criticism while they have criticism heaped upon them.

BRIAN: Could that be a clever strategy on the part of presidents to deflect criticism, yet get certain things done?

LISA BURNS: It definitely works in that way. In fact, some presidents have specifically done this. A great example is FDR. Roosevelt knew that he could float a lot of ideas through Eleanor. Everybody knew that she was very liberal. And so he would take some of his ideas, particularly for the New Deal plan, and have Eleanor go out and talk about them, and then see what the reaction was. And then, if there was a negative reaction, he could always say, oh well, you know my Mrs. I can’t control her.

BRIAN: [LAUGHING]

LISA BURNS: She has a mind of her own. He said that to the press all the time, that well, you know. So he could distance himself in a way that was really strategic.

BRIAN: Lisa, why not legislate or perhaps even think about a constitutional amendment to give the first spouse a legitimate role, or to turn it around, to legitimate the role of the first spouse?

LISA BURNS: I actually think that would be an excellent idea. Then when these questions come up about overreach, it would be pretty clear. I mean, you could look at that list of assigned duties and say, is this person overstepping their boundaries?

BRIAN: But of course, the president has all kinds of rules for what he can do. There are constitutional restraints. How would crafting a few rules allay fears about first lady overreach?

LISA BURNS: Well, I think that, and of course there are questions of, obviously, the president overreaching his power, of abusing executive authority. But at least when you have these discussions about it, whether it’s on the floor of Congress or whether it’s in the media, you can talk about, again, here are the very clear rules. Although they’re not always as clear. They’re a bit vague. They were also written a very long time ago in some cases. So you can look at those though, and say, these are the parameters, and make a judgment call and make an argument, and show evidence that the person is overreaching. Whereas when you don’t have any kind of definition, it’s much harder. It’s almost saying, well, I don’t like you because.

BRIAN: [LAUGHING]

Well, thank you for joining us today on BackStory, Lisa.

LISA BURNS: Thank you very much for having me.

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BRIAN: Lisa Burns is Professor of Communications at Quinnipiac University. Her book is called, First Ladies in the Fourth Estate, Press Framing of Presidential Wives.

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