Professional women
It seems that advice is something that first ladies pass down to one another. Speaking on how she would advise Michelle Obama, Cherie Blair cited words spoken to her by former first lady Hillary Clinton: “You’re not going to please all people. No matter what you do, people won’t like you based on what you stand for.”
Speaking at the Aspen Institute, the wife to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair told the crowd — which included another political wife, Queen Noor of Jordan — how she can relate to what not only Michelle, but Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin must be feeling as women in a “man’s world.” She told how she faced scrutiny in the press for being Catholic and the first wife at 10 Downing Street to have graduated from college, had a job. She also had a child while residing there, something that hadn’t occurred in 150 years.
Not only are both Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Blair professional attorneys raising children, but she said the transitional period America is experiencing reminds her of the political climate in England in 1997, the year Blair was elected. Blair cautioned that Mrs. Obama “cannot take for granted” her husband’s current lead in the polls, and recalled that she did not feel victorious “until all the votes were in the ballot box.”
