AHC: POTUS with a wife 24 years older than him

Ok, serious question: am I the only person left in the world that thinks falling in love with your student as a teacher and then breaking up an existing family with kids to run off with your decades-younger lover is seriously not cool?

I'm with you. And it's seriously not cool at any age.
 
Ok, serious question: am I the only person left in the world that thinks falling in love with your student as a teacher and then breaking up an existing family with kids to run off with your decades-younger lover is seriously not cool?

But how is that relevant to deciding if someone's qualified to be the leader of their country or not?

IMO, as long as they aren't breaking any laws, a man or woman's home life should be entirely left out of the equation in politics, and the media and the public should avoid speculation or whatever. Now: I do think that the initial relationship was...questionable, but it apparently didn't break any laws in France, and it's now over twenty years later so it's irrelevant to any discussion of Macron's (or anyone in a similar situation) suitability for office.

Personally, a politician could be a lesbian rubber-fetishist for all I care: if their policies are good, I'm voting for them, and I don't care what they do when they go home in the evenings.
 
If Cory Booker became president, I'd presume he'd have Gayle King as the First Lady (as Booker isn't married). They have a gap of fifteen years, more than Bradley.
 
This here showcase a major issue. Even though this is a clear case of personal liberty and entitlement, some people still have a problem with it and had they the power (Thankfully they don't) they would have totally ruin the Macron family.

There was a case recently in the Kidal region, Northern Mali, where a man and a women were dragged out of their home and stoned to death because they decided to cohabit. Yes! Two consenting adults, living in a democracy, Stoned to death for the mere fact of cohabiting.

For those who don't remember Northern Mali was invaded by Jihadist from Libya in 2012 and ousted by the French in 2013. To this day these cretins are still hiding in the desert trying to impose their isolated towns and villages that the government can't reach.

Why am I talking about this? Well, just to show how wonderful it is to be able to love in peace without worry.
 
What about bachelor James Buchanan marrying an older woman to act as first lady during his term in office?

This would mean she'd have to be 90 at the age of taking her position alongside 66 year old James, but whoes counting. This could be in the form of Barbara Fritchie, fellow Pennsylvanian who lived to the ripe old age of 96 in 1862
 

CaliGuy

Banned
Yes, obviously the topic is inspired by President Macron of France. I can't think of any parallel among serious presidential candidates in US history, and I wonder if anyone knows of any case where it might plausibly have happened. (A wife twenty-four years *younger*, as with Melania Trump, is another matter.) A few First Ladies were older than their husbands, but--except for Mrs. Harding--only by a year or two at most. "George Washington was 246 days younger than his wife, and Warren G. Harding was 5 years 78 days younger. Both Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Harding survived their husbands. Richard Nixon was 294 days younger than his wife, Benjamin Harrison was 322 days younger, and Millard Fillmore was younger by 1 year 299 days."
http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/america/unitedstates/presidents/marriage.htm.

I remember there was a bit of discussion about Bill Bradley's wife being older than him--but even that was only by eight years.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/1999/09/27/ernestine.html

It is true that one POTUS-to-be did, like Macron, marry his teacher (or at least informal tutor, in that she taught her barely literate husband arithmetic and writing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_McCardle_Johnson but she was actually a year younger than him...

(This obviously could go in either the pre-1900 or post-1900 section. I chose to put it in post-1900 because the nearest examples I could find--the Hardings and the Bradleys--were about post-1900 political careers.
Unfortunately, I can't think of anyone who would meet this AHC. However, I did manage to find a case of a wife-husband age difference being even greater than that of the Macrons. Specifically, this (Bourbon) Spanish prince married a woman who was 31 years his senior:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luís_Fernando_de_Orleans_y_Borbón

Of course, it is also worth noting that it appears that this Spanish prince was gay ... so yeah.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
What about bachelor James Buchanan marrying an older woman to act as first lady during his term in office?

This would mean she'd have to be 90 at the age of taking her position alongside 66 year old James, but whoes counting. This could be in the form of Barbara Fritchie, fellow Pennsylvanian who lived to the ripe old age of 96 in 1862
Consummating this marriage might be a bit of a challenge for James Buchanan, though:

Barbara_Fritchie.jpg
 
Consummating this marriage might be a bit of a challenge for James Buchanan, though
I suspect that no one will check or ask for a bedding ceremony.

The only other idea is if you have a 24 year old woman today groom a baby boy to be president .... although this is not legal or morally correct way to achieve a AHC
 
Teddy Roosevelt...instead of marketing his second wide instead he marries a much older woman. He was young enough....cool enough to pull it off..tough enough to not get flack..was a go who hot into office after assassination..doubt anyone who voted for McKinley had a clue who teddys wife was or would have changed their vote over that
 
This is probably impossible, at least at the current time. The fact that relationships where the woman is the older partner are quite rare— even by as few as 2-3 years— makes it extremely tough to even find anyone who qualifies, for starters. But also, I feel like this would raise eyebrows in the US in such a way that it doesn't in France, because the United States has a much larger preoccupation with politicians' personal lives than most countries.

If she was in the US, she would be lucky to avoid prison for statutory rape if this comes up (and frankly, she was very lucky not to have been charged in France in the first place). A married woman, havimg sex with a minor, 23 years her junior, who was in a position of power over him, :eek: yeah, in any place not France, we are looking at prison.
For what it's worth, the two didn't have sex while Macron was a minor, and it seems they only got serious after Macron graduated. So, while I could be mistaken, I don't think their relationship actually broke any laws. Nothing to do with 'French promiscuity' or whatever.
 

It isn't the *first* consideration (I wouldn't have let that make me vote for Le Pen), but it does say a great deal about his integrity. Being a home-wrecker is not a small thing. If someone is willing to be party to the breaking up of an existing family so they can take the wife, it has implications for how far you can trust them.

A kink isn't anywhere near the same thing thing.

destroying one of the most sacred relationships that can exist>liking to be ball-gagged/being gay

I'm with you. And it's seriously not cool at any age.

I'll say.
 

Jack Brisco

Banned
Wouldn't anything over a decade older be fodder for the tabloids? Does it have to be two and a half (less one year) decades?

Heck, EVERYTHING is now fodder for the tabloids, TV, you name it...the voracious 24-hour news cycle must be fed, one way or another.
 
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