Partners in fight for 'First' place at White House

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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1995224,00.html

IT is the 'other race' for the White House. Not to be President, but to be First Lady and 2008's Democratic party field is alreadyone of the most colourful and controversial in US history.

There are career women, stay-at-home moms, humanitarians, a high flying lawyer, a cancer survivor, a black woman and even a Briton. Now, after Senator Hillary Clinton yesterday announced she is taking the first formal steps to enter the race there is also a man (who just happens to be a former American president himself).

Welcome to the First Lady's contest. Let the games begin.

The role of the First Lady is not a modern creation in American politics. Though America's founders consciously stripped out a lot of the ceremonial aspect of government in reaction to throwing out the British monarchy, the First Lady quickly came to occupy that space. 'Ceremony smacked too much of royalty. But of course everyone still needs that. That's where the First Lady comes in,' said Catherine Allgor, a political scientist at the University of California at Riverside and expert on First Ladies.