[Opinion] First Lady

It was at the inauguration ceremony held for the 19th U.S. president Rutherford Hayes that the word `first lady` was used for the first time. A reporter at the scene called Mrs. Hayes the `first lady` and many soon followed suit. There was a president who entered the White House without a first lady. The 22nd president Grover Cleavland was a single man when he became president. A year later in 1886, however, he soon married Francis Fallsum, a daughter of one of his closest friends. The groom was 49 at that time and the bride was 21. And the wedding further fuelled the use of the word ‘first lady.’

▷First ladies, in fact, have been innovators changing the White House. Sara James Folk, wife of the 11th President James Folk (1845 to 1849), introduced for the first time a gas lamp in the White House, and Caroline Harrison, who were married to the 23rd President Benjamin Harrison (1889 to 1893), brought in electric facilities. Grace Cooledge, wife of the 30th President Calvin Cooledge (1923 to 1129), and Beth Truman, wife of the 33rd President Harry Truman, had a radio and an air conditioner installed in the residence respectively.

▷Popularity of a president has not always identified with that of the first lady, however. According to an opinion poll conducted by USA Today in 1989, the public approval rating for then President George Bush was only 13%, while that for his wife Barbara Bush was 37%. Mary Lincoln, the wife of the man who is considered the American greatest president, was one of the most severely criticized first ladies. As intensity of criticism about her carelessness, impudence and coarseness increased, the Chicago Tribune wrote an editorial in August 1861 titled `Enough is Enough, Drop the Subject.`

▷Cathy Marten once called the first lady the hidden power, and some others said something about the unelected power. The wife of a president, however, is now considered the exposed and elected power that stands next to her man. It’s almost impossible to look back the man’s past without his wife. The presidential election campaign is intensifying with the reckoning day only five days away. And we cannot but wonder what this country’s next first lady will be like.

Jung Jin-hong, Guest Editorial Writer, Professor at Korea National University of Arts, atombit@netian.com