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Guess Bill wasn't supposed to appoint his wife to a task force he put together, to tackle healthcare. She was supposed to stay in the White House and "stay in her lane."
Didn't know that obesity, and advocating healthy choices, was partisan. So many on one side of the political spectrum always talk about choice. But when a first lady on the other side talks about it....!
Hillary leading that task force made it politically toxic for a generation. She tried to steamroller people and killed the proposal. Saying she was good for her work there only makes sense if you hate health care changes.
Thinking about this lead to an interesting corollary. If I were president and had to select one of these as my first lady, there are only two going back to Jackie that I would select. Barbara Bush would be #1 and Lady Bird #2. Melania's looks would get her consideration! But I still don't think so. The rest just all had issues. I can't imagine living with Jill/Michelle/Hillary/Nancy/Betty/Pat. Barbara was classy and fiercely loyal while being strong and independent minded.
I like Barbara but I don’t think I’d want to look at her every morning.
You missed Laura Bush. If I was President, I would want a First Lady that didn’t upstage me or embarrass me. Laura was pretty enough and non controversial.
While I especially always liked Laura Bush, I think each First Lady did well with their respective projects. But, I’d have to say my two favorites are Michelle Obama and Melanie Trump. They are both classy women who showed grace and kept a stiff upper lip in the face of all of the viciousness and petty criticism they received by those who dislike their husbands. I think Melania, through no fault of her own, was uniquely unprepared for being First Lady (previous FLs had the advantage of being married to an elected official), so I think it was especially tough for her to have to leave her life in Manhattan. They put up with a lot of ugliness for the sake of their husbands, and deserve every ounce of credit for it.
The absurdity of the this poll is in clear view when Melania Trump barely trails Eleanor Roosevelt. Melania did absolutely NOTHING of serious merit. Her getting votes just further demonstrates the insanity of the Trump cult.
Anyone who posed nude in a centerfold is trash, no ifs and buts, about it. Melania Trump is a "trophy wife and an "airhead"; Melania Trump is trash! Be Best!
You're being really hard on Eleanor, and you're also just wrong about some stuff. Her parents were dead by the time she married FDR, as was FDR's father, and his mother opposed the marriage, so who's supposed to have "arranged" it? By all accounts the courtship was initiated by FDR himself and Eleanor initially was very much enamored, but after their marriage FDR's mother went full Jocasta and tried to make herself the lady of the Roosevelt house, which put huge pressure on the young family. Things might have gone differently between the pair, and Eleanor might have had closer relationships to her children, without that factor. As far as sex goes, they had a pile of children, so obviously she was at least trying. She may have been physically unattracted to men in general, which nowadays one might be expected to figure out before marrying, but back then what opportunity did a young lady have to explore her sexual orientation prior to marriage? She also had very poor or absent models of parenting and marriage from her own parents (for one thing, she had a half-brother who was her father's child by a family servant), which I'm sure didn't help.
Eleanor might not have been the most amazing wife or mother (of course, it was FDR who did the cheating, and their kids were not neglected by any stretch of the imagination) but they were very compatible intellectually, and in their activist beliefs and objectives. One way she could be a good partner and a support to her husband was politically, by natural aptitude and with her position in society, and she threw herself into that role wholeheartedly, while also advancing causes she believed would help people. What's so terrible about that? Anyway, a lot of her most significant activism took place after his death, when she was another private citizen like anyone else, albeit a famous one.
There was no such thing as no-fault divorce at that time, so any divorce proceedings would have by definition required making something scandalous public. Divorce in itself was also scandalous - except in very grave circumstances, people were expected to either make the most of unhappy marriages, or set up separate households while remaining married as the most extreme "acceptable" measure. It would have been a huge leap for anyone at the time to divorce, let alone someone in the public eye like these two.
They were both independently wealthy, so I doubt money was a primary motivation for their partnership. Eleanor gave a large portion of her personal income to charity because she didn't need it.
I'm not hard on her. She is dead and her children are dead. My post is an argument against making her the best 1st lady in history. I stand by my post. She wasn't a good mother, she was in a political arranged marriage and she wasn't elected and she crossed the line many times from her role.
How does that makes her the best First Lady and a role model for girls? "Girls, always get yours"?
Guess Bill wasn't supposed to appoint his wife to a task force he put together, to tackle healthcare. She was supposed to stay in the White House and "stay in her lane."
Didn't know that obesity, and advocating healthy choices, was partisan. So many on one side of the political spectrum always talk about choice. But when a first lady on the other side talks about it....!
She wasn't elected was she? Bill could have picked any Democrat in the house and Senate for a task force who were elected. After all, this was about making NEW LAW and change the lives of every American for the worse or better. Hillary shouldn't have been anywhere in the process.
Would Democrats approve Trump putting Melania in the task force to pass tax reform and immigration reform and the head of pushing his judges picks to the S.C.? Yeah right.
Partisan is not making people make their free choices what to eat. Partisan using the government to punish the choices of people and put the finger on the scale and pick and choose in the food industry who gets tax credits and special status and who doesn't. That's partisan.
If Michelle wants to make a campaign of healthy food and exercise more power to her but when you have powerful politicians in government telling people by law that they can't drink their choice of drinks above a specific size or food or make those foods more expensive to force you to change then it's a problem for many.
I voted for Trump but I don’t believe his wife deserves first spot other than physical appearance. Michelle Obama (please people, stop with the infantile changing of her name) school lunch program was a well intentioned disaster resulting in students going hungry from insufficient nutrition to get through the day unless they brought their own meals. Nancy Reagan’s “Nust Say No” was another well intentioned failure but at least students didn’t go hungry.
I voted for Dolly Madison because she faced direct adversity and did what she could for the good of the country. Roosevelt accomplished more and definitely deserves a top spot.
She was a controversial First Lady in her time for her outspokenness, particularly on civil rights for African Americans. She was the first presidential spouse to hold regular press conferences, write a daily newspaper column, write a monthly magazine column, host a weekly radio show, and speak at a national party convention.
On a few occasions, she publicly disagreed with her husband's political policies. She also advocated for expanded roles for women in the work place.
After the end of WWII, although no longer First Lady, she was a champion of the rights of the millions of refugees from that conflict.
In my opinion, Ms. Roosevelt significantly reshaped and redefined the role of First Lady.
Very interesting thread and one I've never thought about. I'm not going to comment on the ones before Nancy Reagan since I wasn't old enough to remember any of them.
Nancy Reagan was when I was a kid and literally all I remember about her was the just say no messages and her support of DARE. Pretty cool on her end.
Hillary Clinton was smart and I remember her doing quite a few things when she was FL, working on stuff like healthcare and anti-violence against women initiatives. She was probably the most active first lady I remember.
Laura Bush I honestly don't remember much about other than she was always at someone's school talking to kids lol. I'm sure she did more but honestly hat time period was so chaotic that it's just a bit of a blur with her.
Michelle Obama was really smart too and I vividly remember all of her focus on nutrition and keeping kids active. Definitely the prettiest FL of my lifetime too!
Melania Trump really was the one I didn't feel like actually did much as first lady. Some was probably how the media treated Trump but it seemed like she was out there a lot less than any of the other first ladies. Most of my memories of her are giving what felt like forced speeches. I never felt like she really wanted to be there (which is understandable).
Overall though, we've had some really solid first ladies over the last few decades. I've read a lot about Eleanor Roosevelt and Jackie Kennedy but don't really feel like I can speak on them given the very different social paradigms in the country at the time (as well as the fact I was not yet alive).
I wonder if she envisioned being more a Jackie Kennedy type of First Lady: mostly ornamental and fashionable, not much in the public eye beyond that? We’ve grown accustomed to First Ladies being highly-educated, with established professional careers before they became First Ladies. Even though it’s not an elected position, the expectations have evolved beyond garden parties and selecting the White House china.
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