Women rate candidates' marriages

Ann and Mitt Romney's seemingly picture-perfect marriage has been a staple of his campaign image as someone with strong family values. She even has her own website.

But perhaps surprisingly, the Romney union rates only sixth in a Ladies' Home Journal survey of women, who were asked to rank the happiness of presidential candidate marriages.

Of the women surveyed, 24 percent said they think the Romney's have a happy marriage. That's less than the 34 percent who think that of Rudy Giuliani's marriage to the former Judith Nathan, his third marriage, and 29 percent who say that's the case for Hillary and Bill Clinton, whose ups and downs have been well chronicled over the years, according to the survey released today.

It could be that the Romneys appear too perfect.

"This poll reflects a fairly recent –- and historically unprecedented – change in people's expectations of marriage and of public figures," Stephanie Coontz, a nationally acclaimed marriage historian and contributing editor to the magazine, said in a press release on the survey results. "Only in the past 50 years have people begun to judge a marriage more by its internal emotional quality than by its public appearance of respectability."

Of Giuliani's surprisingly high ranking, Coontz says it is "an interesting sign of change. People are willing to give male politicians, at least, a second, or even third, chance at happiness."

In the survey, the marriage of John and Elizabeth Edwards was most seen as happy, by 52 percent of those surveyed. They have been married for 30 years, and she is fighting breast cancer for the second time.

The poll also shows a wide gap between black and white women on whether their perception of a candidate's marriage would affect their vote. While 62 percent of African-American women say it wouldn't, only 39 percent of white women say that.

The poll of 502 women ages 18 and older was conducted Sept. 6-10, and has margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.