Why They Stay
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"Why They Stay" explores the reasoning and motivation of wives who stay with their politician-husbands after they cheat. Hillary Clinton couldn't have known in 1998 how her husband's high-profile philandering would play out. Would he be rehabilitated in the public eye? She couldn't be sure, but she took the gamble. Had she left the marriage, today she might be the spurned wife of a retired politician instead of the first American woman to head a major party ticket. Looking back on the path chosen by the nine political wives profiled in this book, we have the evidence to see a pattern--as old as the dynastic maneuverings of England's medieval queens. The women married to the "royalty" of our times--politicians--make similar cold calculations in order to hold onto their "thrones" and their family's history-making potential. After covering politicians for decades, acclaimed columnist Anne Michaud switched her gaze to the women behind the cheating men. Drawing from multiple sources that span the Roosevelts' marriage to the more recent scandal involving Hillary Clinton's closest aide Huma Abedin (wife of "sexter," Anthony Weiner), "Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Nine Political Wives" argues that when it comes to the "power behind the throne," women in the limelight weigh the risks and rewards. They remain loyal to their men, because of complex, often unconscious forces.From mapping a path to power to laudable notions of holding the family together, Michaud examines the uniquely challenging Faustian bargains that political wives grapple with, even as the public spotlight illuminates their every move.
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Table of Contents Praise for Why They Stay Copyright Dedication Prologue The White Queen Relationship Trait One: Submitting to Tradition Trait Two: Longing for Security Trait Three: A Personal Sense of Patriotism Trait Four: Responsibility for the Family's Emotional Health Trait Five: Ambition to Build and Bequeath a Legacy 1. Eleanor and FDR Living Separate Lives Together Eleanor's White Queen Quotient: 8 Seeking Security in a World of Privilege and Dissolution Schooled in a Proud Patriarchal Legacy To Washington, and Temptation Eleanor's Commitment to Duty Tested Fashioning a New Kind of First Lady Infidelity's Legacy For the Five Roosevelt Children 2. Jackie and JFK A Legacy of Adultery Jackie's White Queen Quotient: 7 The Kennedys and Fitzgeralds: Stepping Up from 'Second Class' The Bouviers: A Façade of Financial Security Jackie's Mother: Schooling her Daughters to Marry Mr. Right Male Privilege: Philandering in Both Houses Coping in Bed and All the Way to the Bank Turning Outward toward Caretaking A Heritage of Resiliency 3. Valerie Hobson and Jack Profumo Bringing Down the Party Valerie's White Queen Quotient: 8 From Poverty to Hollywood: The Woman at the Center of the Scandal A Noble Family and Every Other Advantage Marriage Agrees with Jack's Political Career Hiding the Scandal from the Children Deciding Whether to Stay 4. Marion Stein and Jeremy Thorpe Party Leader Blackmailed Marion's White Queen Quotient: 9 A Life Blossoming Through Music Fairy Tale Marriage to a Royal Grandson The Charismatic Jack Kennedy of Britain Gay Men in Public Life A Deadly Plot Scandal's Legacy for Four Sons 5. Hillary and Bill Clinton: Inventing the Power Couple Hillary's White Queen Quotient: 10 Mixed Messages from a Righteous Mother and Overbearing Father An Evidently Formidable Team Clearly Not a One-Woman Man Uneasiness in the Land of Patriarchal Politics Protecting Her Family's Legacy-and That of Her Country Making a Normal Family Life for Chelsea Arguing for a 'Zone of Privacy' for Political Families 6. Gila and Moshe Katsav Loyalty After Rape Charges Gila's White Queen Quotient: 8 A Life Built on Building a Community A Tremor of Scandal, and then an Avalanche What Gila and their Children Knew 7. Wendy and David Vitter Anti-Sex Crusader Wendy's White Queen Quotient: 9 Early Training in 'No Nonsense' The Lone Wolf of Louisiana Politics D.C. Madam Publishes Clients' Phone Numbers and Fetishes Protecting Himself from His Own Urges 8. Silda Wall and Eliot Spitzer Clinging to Power Silda's White Queen Quotient: 6 A Southern Belle Drawn to Harvard Pressure to Perform in a Dynasty on the Rise Silda Wonders, 'Who is This Guy?' 'The Wife is Responsible for the Sex' Trying to Mend the Family 9. Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner A Woman of Confidence Learning to Defend Herself and Her Culture A Middle-Class Son from Brooklyn and Queens The 'Most Competent, Graceful Person' in Politics A sex scandal fueled by 21st century media Huma's White Queen Quotient: 10 Social Media Obsession Helps to Sink Hillary Clinton Campaign Conclusion Acknowledgments
