So Arnold Schwarzenegger can’t control his wife?

And what about Sarkozy, who just married Carla Bruni, who endorsed Ségolène Royal in the past elections?

The funny thing is that these two men are very much from the right wing, which is more traditional and in their view of the world their wifes should do what they say. It would be more normal to have a left wing man “allowing” his wife to have a different opinion, but these two right wing “machos”? Hhmmm, it seems that there are no real machos anymore…

Some wives like to be controlled, Maria Shriver is the daughter of Sargent Shriver her mother was sister to Pres. John Kennedy and her father was part of his cabinet. So much of politics is an illusion, for all the right wing Christian politics of Ronald Reagon, we now know of the “special” parties he had a the white house, in addition his wife was rumored to be very
kinky prior to their marriage.
What does all this mean? I have difficult time believing any person will stand up for anything in Govt by conviction. I think Pres, Jimmy Carter was the last one. I think they will tell us what their polls tell them what we want to hear.
As far as wives speaking out differently than their husbands
as you guys no doubt have guessed, my ex left many years ago and the kids and I have forged new lives for ourselves without her and so I do not seek to change anyone, nor seek anyone to change me. It is nice to accepted for who I am
and so for Maria Shriver I am more interested in why she is supporting Obama? I could care less about her supporting anyone, but I am interested in anyone’s reasons for supporting someone. I think it must be too early in the morning or I have not drunk enough coffee to put together a cohesive thought

In my opinion, more significant news is the fact that New York Times endorses Hillary Clinton. I think it’s a big mistake for NYT, not the fact that it’s about Clinton or anyone else, but officially taking sides. The media in this country is all messed up.. As for candidates themselves, the puppet masters will be the same anyway.

Eugenia have you considered that this political controversy,could be nothing more than a well planned political imagemaking move for Arnold?

No, it’s not image-making. It’s just that Shriver is a strong woman, she is part of the Kennedy family which is endorsing Obama as a whole pretty much, while Arnie is simply a Republican, running under the Republican party and he has no other choice.

The problem is more complex. It does say something about American politics, but even more about American marriage. Here in Europe, a politician’s partner will stay out of the spotlight, especially if opinions digress. It’s a matter of respecting a carreer, and also protection of privacy. Indeed, this goes in two directions. Partner’s stay quiet, and the press leaves the partner alone. There are (sad) examples, like the French president Sarcozy marrying a former model, just weeks after being separated from his wife.

> It does say something about American politics, but even more about American marriage.

This is not true. You obviously don’t know who Arnie’s wife is. If anything, she’s more powerful than him.