View of candidates' marriages sways some voters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A third of U.S. women say their vote for president is influenced by the happiness of a candidate's marriage, and Democrat John Edwards is most widely seen as having a happy marriage, said a survey released on Friday.

Fifty-two percent of women said they thought Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, had a happy marriage, while 43 percent viewed rival Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as happy, the survey by the Ladies' Home Journal said.

Only 29 percent of women thought Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, were happy. Even fewer, 12 percent, thought New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and his wife, Barbara, were happy.

Among Republicans, Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his wife, Judith, were the most widely believed to have happy marriages.

Thirty-five percent of women said the McCains were happy, while 34 percent said the same for the Giulianis.

Twenty-nine percent said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, had a happy marriage, and 20 percent said former Sen. Fred Thompson and his wife, Jeri, were happy.

Thirty-five percent of the women surveyed said their perceptions of the candidates' marriages would affect their vote in November 2008 either "a great deal" or "somewhat."

While perceptions about the happiness of a candidate's marriage tended to split along party lines, views about the Edwards defied those trends. Elizabeth Edwards has been a vocal supporter of her husband and has continued to work for his election even after discovering she has incurable cancer.

Stephanie Coontz, a marriage historian and Ladies' Home Journal contributing editor, said ratings for the twice-divorced Giuliani appeared to be a sign "people are willing to give male politicians, at least, a second, or even third, chance at happiness."

Clinton's relatively low score is a sign that women are more harshly judged than men for not having a happy marriage, Coontz said.

She said Hillary Clinton is blamed for "not packing up and leaving her husband" after he had an extramarital affair with a White House intern.

The survey of 502 women was carried out from September 6 to September 10 and had a margin of error of 4.4 percent.