Are Political Spouses 'Fair Game?'

In White House history, there's been more than one kind of First Lady. Laura Bush and Bess Truman, for example, have played very different roles and projected very different images from Eleanor Roosevelt or Hilary Clinton. The next First Lady will be either Cindy McCain or Michelle Obama, and American voters are sizing them up along with their husbands. "Fair game" is what one Republican group calls Obama, leading her husband to demand that his critics "lay off my wife." Though Cindy McCain says spouses and families should not be "fair game," Mrs. Obama has taken a lot more media heat, even from Mrs. McCain. If they get the White House they are likely to play different roles and project different images. Is that what makes for differing treatment? We look at the news coverage, the commentators and the blogosphere.