AMONG THE FIRST LADIES 149
"Mrs. Obama will define the role of first lady for herself—blending family and issues of great importance to her. Nancy Reagan said years ago. The Constitution doesn't mention the president's wife. Each incoming first lady has had to define the job herself.' Mrs. Obama will do the same." Jacqueline
Wife of Rutherford B. Hayes, and Sarah Polk, wife of James Polk, banned all drinking, dancing, and card playing in the White House long before Carter became first lady
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Kennedy renovated the White House. Lady Bird Johnson worked on beautification. Nancy Reagan was the advocate of "just say no" to drugs. Laura Bush's interest was the spread of literacy. "Eleanor Roosevelt didn't have one project." said Myra G. Guth% a first lady historian and author of The I:Wildcat's Partner; The First Lady in the Twentieth Century. She was all over the board. She was involved in Ncw Deal programs. She was active in policy.... But," Cutin contin-ued, "I don't think it is right to say Michelle Obama will be the next Eleanor Roosevelt.'" Not every expert agrees with Outin. For example, Nathan Richter, managing director at Wakefield, a survey research and communications consultancy, believes that Michelle Obama most resembles the great American icon Eleanor Roosevelt, who said, "Every woman in public life needs to develop skin as tough as rhinoceros hide.“" Mrs. Roosevelt was constantly attacked during her 12 years as first lady, as much because she was as great a star as her husband as for her policies. Earlier first ladies who also were routinely criticized in-elude Louisa Adams, who was born in England, and her husband John Quincy Adams. who were assaulted without basis by ignoramuses for being lovers of royalty who supposedly encouraged a sexual relation-ship between the czar and one of 6.11.11$3.$ aides. The campaign be-tween Adams and Andrew Jackson in 1828 was the first to include a barrage against a candidate's wife. The spunky Louisa was the first presidential spouse to fight back, giving a rebuttal in a widely read women's magazine." More recently, Rosalynn Caner was mocked for not serving hard liquor in the White House, but Lucy Hayes. wife of Rutherford B. Hayes, and Sarah Polk, wife of James Polk, banned all drinking, dancing, and card playing in the White House long before Carter became first lady. Nancy Reagan's routine consultations with an astrologer to help plan her husband's schedules were greeted with derision..."
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