The Atlantic
How Lady Bird Johnson and Nancy Reagan advanced their husbands’ ambitions and their own
This article was published online on April 20, 2021.
Of the many images that lingered after the January inauguration of President Joe Biden the twinkling hand gestures of the poet Amanda Gorman, the rakish eyebrow-waggling of the second daughter, Ella Emhoff one of the more subtly significant was the scene of Doug Emhoff trying to figure out which side of his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, to stand on. As the first and second couples moved to ascend the Capitol steps, Emhoff stood to her left; changed his mind and dashed to her right; then sort of bobbled, hesitating, before settling at her left. In an otherwise scripted and sober ceremony, the shuffle injected a spontaneous note as the second gentleman sought his place not sure quite what that place was.