Few Political Families as Usual Here

DES MOINES — Dennis J. Kucinich, on the phone en route to a campaign event, is annoyed. The Ohio representative and presidential hopeful, twice divorced and currently single, is fresh off a date organized by a website trying to find him a new wife. His romantic track record raises a fairly obvious, if irritating, question: Could Americans have a problem voting for a man who has trouble staying married?

"First of all," he replies tersely, "I would take issue with the way you characterize it."

So many Americans have experienced divorce, he says, that they are careful about judging others. "What I think happens," he says, "is that the ... family is being redefined."

Looking at this season's crop of Democratic presidential aspirants, one would be hard-pressed to argue the point. Before Carol Moseley Braun quit the race Thursday, the nine contenders accounted for five divorces (Kucinich's two and one each for Braun, John F. Kerry and Joe Lieberman). Also, there were two unpartnered candidates (Kucinich, Braun), two with stepchildren (Kerry, Lieberman) and one with an openly gay daughter (Dick Gephardt). Fertility treatments allowed John Edwards' wife to have a baby after 50. Howard Dean and his wife, Judith Steinberg, practice different religions -- Steinberg is Jewish; Dean views himself as a Congregationalist. Steinberg intends to continue practicing medicine even if her husband becomes president. And she and Al Sharpton's wife, Kathy Jordan, did not take their husbands' last names. Only one family seems to fit an ultra-traditional mold -- Wesley K. Clark's.

This, as social historian Barbara Dafoe Whitehead put it, "is family diversity to the max."

With a high divorce rate, remarriage and "blended" families a fact of life, two-job households the norm and a culture that is more accepting of homosexuality, the candidates seem to be holding up a mirror to America.

"In the realm of private life ... the American people accept a lot of differences that they wouldn't have in the past," Whitehead said.

However, anything does not go for those running for office.

"The clearest line I can see now concerning what the American people will not accept is perhaps an openly gay president," said Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas expert on presidential politics. "We used to wonder if people would elect a president who smoked, or was divorced, or was a Catholic. I think what shook us up was [President] Clinton's escapade. And yet, he not only survived, but flourished."