Deliciously Spicy Frenchness

In June, 2009 I wrote a post about Carla Bruni, the wife of then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy. To my American eyes she was an unlikely first lady, having been a model, girlfriend to Mick Jagger and President Sarkozy's third wife, and I was intrigued by the deliciously spicy Frenchness of it all. I also wondered if such a thing could ever happen here. There's now a new president of France, Francois Hollande, who will be the guest of honor at a White House state dinner tonight, and he has a colorful marital history as well. In fact, he's not actually married. Up until recently the so-called First Lady of France was his "live-in girlfriend," Valerie Trierwieler but they split up when it was revealed that the president was frequently spending his nights with a much-younger actress named Julie Gayet.

So who cares, right? It's France. It's a bit of a thing here in the states right now because of the state dinner. Mr. Hollande has announced that he'll be attending "stag", which presents a protocol issue for the White House. Traditionally the spouse of the visiting head of state is seated in the place of honor next to the president. (Or presumably next to the first lady if the head of state is a woman and the spouse is a man.) Anyway, when the guest of honor doesn't bring a date, who sits next to the president? I read that the White House also had to trash the original invitations because they included Trierwieler's name when it was still assumed that she would be coming.

It's all pretty entertaining, but could it happen here? Could a politician with a messy personal life get elected president? Ronald Reagan was the first, and so far, only, President who had been divorced, but when he was elected in 1980 his divorce from Jane Wyman was 31 years in the past and it wasn't an issue in the campaign. We may have a test case in the 2016 presidential election. All 2016 speculation on the Democratic side is tied to whether or not Hillary runs, but if she doesn't, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York is one of the names on the "who else" list and if he does run, it will be one for the ages. Why?

He's the son of former governor Mario Cuomo and the brother of CNN anchor/reporter Chris Cuomo, but that's not the most interesting part.

He lives with but isn't married to Food Network chef Sandra Lee, but even that's not the most interesting part.

The most interesting part, the deliciously spicy part is this: his ex-wife is a Kennedy. From 1990 to 2005 Andrew Cuomo was married to Kerry Kennedy, daughter of RFK and Ethel, niece of JFK and Teddy, cousin of the new U.S. ambassador to Japan and Maria Shriver, etc. Their marriage was a dynastic merger of the highest order and their subsequent divorce was messy and public.

So does it matter, in 2016? A divorced candidate isn't that big of a deal, but a divorce that's tied to the whole Kennedy drama? Kennedys are both competitive and tribal, and I've read that they're not particularly kind to former in-laws. Can you imagine a former Kennedy in-law in the White House? In fact, there would be actual Kennedys in the White House because Andrew and Kerry have three daughters together and the girls are just as much Kennedys as Caroline's and Maria's kids. It would all be mesmerizing to watch and I haven't even mentioned Arnold Schwarzennegger, who's also an (ex) governor and (almost) former Kennedy in-law.

It's all just speculation at this point but it sure is fun to think about.

Nit-picky constitutional reminder: Since he was not born in the United States, Arnold isn't actually eligible to run for president.