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Journalism of Courage
Catch First Partner Hillary Rodham Clinton in a night shirt, her hair tousled, opening the door to the florist, waiting to be devoured by an array of paparazzi. Sister Frigidaire, as she was known in high school, would never be caught with her pants down some would say it8217;s because it happens all the time to her profligate husband.
But poor Cherie Booth Blair, who recently moved into 11, Downing Street, with her 50 pairs of shoes and three children, is still getting used to the semiotics of celebrity. That is why, she could never be mistaken for Hillary, though her career as a highly-paid lawyer would suggest otherwise.
Not just that. People seem to have forgotten that in 1983, both Tony Blair and Cherie Booth Blair stood for Parliamentary elections. Cherie lost, Tony won. If the decision had been reversed, maybe Margaret Thatcher8217;s legacy would have been justifiably inherited by another woman of steel instead of a man whom the tabloid press with the exception of the suddenly sweet The Sun has taken to calling Stalin, after first mistaking him for Bambi.
The difference could be in the pro-active role that Hillary has been playing in American politics, sitting in on campaign and policy meetings. Compare that with the almost Draconian hold Peter Mandelson had on the Blair campaign and you will understand the basic difference in the two political systems. Hillary8217;s position as the First Lady is the closest an American woman has come to an important policy position if you discount Pamela Harriman and Madeleine Albright in recent history.
Britain, on the other hand, is the Capital of Cool in more than one way. This time, there is a record 120 women in the House of Commons, and they range from actress Glenda Jackson to Labour image queen Barbara Follet also wife of novelist Ken to Cabinet minister Clare Short, a mother who gave her son up for adoption. In the US, where soccer moms have become an integral part of the Democrats8217; support, such a politically incorrect politician would have been hounded out by The Star or the National Enquirer.
In the more accessible public life of Britain, Cherie Blair can actually go back to work within a week of her husband becoming Prime Minister, because another woman, The Queen, is official hostess. Poor Hillary has to content herself with visiting Third World nations with her daughter, Chelsea, and winning a Grammy. But when Cherie writes of how not to cut your toe-nails in front of your man, Britons can only gag at the contrived sweetness.
Talking of the Third World, perhaps it can truly be said now that Britain has become an honourable member of the club in the opportunities it allows to women in politics. The First World of America demands far more stringent standards of its women politicians than it does of men. In the US, women in public office cannot have illegal immigrants as babysitters but it8217;s all right if a Kennedy politician scion beds a teenaged babysitter.
What is common to both Hillary and Cherie is the microscope they are under. The media scrutinised Hillary8217;s hairdos as much as they comment on Cherie Blair8217;s awkward body language with her husband. In the US, Jackie Onassis is dead but the tabloid column inches are always hungry for every detail of Ice Queen Hillary8217;s closet. In Britain Diana has become far too saintly and Camilla, her replacement, is far too horsy, so pretty Cherie is a godsend.But catch Cherie choosing to speak like Hillary at the party convention or conducting imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt. Millbank may have been a lot like Little Rock, Arkansas, but Cherie is likely to emerge less scathed by power than Hillary. Catch her law firm8217;s questionably lost billing records surfacing in the White House. And catch her opening her mouth to utter anything but praise for Tony. For her, life as First Consort could be as difficult as that for Dennis Thatcher. But as uneventful.
