The politics of the president's wife

As the West Wing has grown in power and organizational complexity during the modern presidency, so has the East Wing, office home to the First Lady of the United States. This groundbreaking work by MaryAnne Borrelli offers both theoretical and substantive insight into behind-the-scenes developments from the time of Lou Henry Hoover to the unfolding tenure of Michelle Robinson Obama. Political scientists and historians have recognized the personal influence the First Lady can exercise with her husband, and they have noted the moral, ethical, and sometimes policy leadership certain presidentsʼ wives have offered. Nonetheless, scholars and commentators alike have treated the personal relationship and the professional relationship as overlapping. Borrelli offers a compelling counter-perspective: that the presidentʼs wife exercises power intrinsic to her role within the administration. Like others within the presidency, she has sometimes presented the presidentʼs views to constituents and sometimes presented constituentsʼ views to the president, thus taking on a representative function within the system. In mediating president-constituent relationships, she has given a historical and so