Opera-ian Politics & America

Anne Applebaum exposes the absurdity, this time not in Russia, but America: the need for spouses of American politicos to moderately parrot their husbands (or wives) before national and international audiences. Of the recent "debate" that 5 of the potential first ladies had, Applebaum calls it all very Opera-ellian:

Applebaum: "The result? There was Michelle Obama, an impressive woman who has put her career on hold to attend events like this; Elizabeth Edwards, who gamely endures this sort of thing despite her cancer; and poor Jeri Thompson, who admitted to sheer terror ("I'm afraid of embarrassing Fred … you don't want to let everybody down"). Nothing of relevance was said, of course. How could it be?"

...but they felt good about doing it.

Nice article, Anne.