Jezebel 
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New York, 4:24 PM
Fri Dec 18
69 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/23/09
09/23/09
Angela Merkels husband Joachim Sauer is famous for not showing up on official occasions - I am not even sure if he attended Angies inauguration ceremony. Almost the only time the german public gets a peek at him is when he accompanies his wife to the yearly Wagner-Festival (Opera, that stuff).
I think most of the german public likes him for that - it´s refreshingly down-to-earth. In general we don´t have any particular tradition of partner-of-politicians-running-around-doing-good-deeds. Excluding the wifes (up until now, sadly only wifes - we're working on it) of the presidents - the german president having solely representative duties, their families are normally more present. Some chancellors wifes followed the "american" path before, writing books and doing stuff.... but I think the only ones they make happy with that are the press people. For the rest of germany, it´s normally pretty okay if we don´t even know how spouses and children look like, let alone what they do and where they are.
That said: it annoys the hell out of me that these "spouse-programmes" are still so 1950s-girls-stuff. I ntoo would have hoped that Michelle Obama would have turned the wheel just a bit more...
Maybe we have to wait until there is a critical mass of male spouses. The kind who follow their wives to G20 meetings, not the Joachim-Sauer-what-the-fuck-do-I-care?-kind.
09/23/09
That said I wish that the WIVES of politicians would be allowed such liberty too.
09/23/09
I think he got a pretty good deal.
09/23/09
09/23/09
hahaha. Totally. They're eating like, A LOT OF FOOD a few times a year. They probably sit around going "oh, I'm so BAD! I shouldn't eat this! But just this once!" and then, they shamefully call up Jenny Craig the next to work off their MISTAKE. Other topics of conversation include: shoes, how men never do housework, andthe healing powers of yogurt.
09/23/09
09/23/09
09/23/09
I bet he would enjoy hanging around the other wives at the spouse- events.
09/23/09
09/23/09
(ETA: And I don't think this is a case of his sister standing in as first lady due to president being unmarried. Ahmadinejad's definitely married.)
09/23/09
09/23/09
09/23/09
09/23/09
That writer is exactly right -one does wonder. And by one I mean that reporter specifically is the only one who wonders.
09/23/09
09/23/09
*shudders*
09/23/09
Grant: I am an alien spouse of female military personnel enroute to the United States under Public Law 271 of the Congress
Army Guy: But you're a man! You can't stay here!
09/23/09
09/23/09
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09/23/09
Were any of them REQUIRED to go? Aside from the politeness factor? I really have no huge problem with this.
09/23/09
09/23/09
09/23/09
I think she's awesome. And I can't imagine her at a Harry Potter Party.
[en.wikipedia.org]
09/23/09
09/23/09
This dance aint for everybody
Only the lady spouses
So all you fly wives, get on out there and tour
Tour, I said!
First Wives here, and were in effect
Want you to tour it, babe
Coolin by day then at night working up a sweat
Cmon girls, lets go show the guys that we know
How to become number one in a hot party show
Now tour it
Ah, tour it good"
09/23/09