Elin Woods: Will she take a page out of the political wife playbook?

A cheating husband is nothing new to politics. 

We've seen it time and time again: A male politician gets busted for getting a little sumpin' sumpin' on the side.  Then his wife wife falls to her knees, looks to the heavens, and asks WWJD? (What would J.Lo do?)

Well, as Diddy learned the hard way, J. Lo would roll out, play Ben Affleck a few beats, and then marry and have twins with Mark Antony.  But not all women follow Jenny from the Block's play book.

Silda Spitzer stayed with her husband and NY governor Eliot after learning that he was getting it on with a call girl their daughter's age.  Dina McGreevey, wife of former New Jersey governor James McGreevey, stood by her husband's side as he announced that he is a "gay American," who cheated on his wife with a male staffer.  Larry Craig's wife stayed after the senator was accused of looking for male on male action in a public restroom.  David Vitter's wife stayed after the senator got some side action from an escort.  Elizabeth Edwards stayed with former presidential candidate John, long after we all knew that he fathered a child with another woman. (She just left him recently.) And we know Bubba's wife stayed.

The only woman known not to stand by her man in recent times is Jenny Sanford, wife of the South Carolina governor who went missing and then turned out to be in Argentina with his "soul mate" mistress. Jenny refused to stand on the podium with her shamed husband, looking shocked, humiliated, and grief stricken like so many political wives have done before her.  Instead, she left the bastard, declared her independence, and wrote a book that is a must read before your next cocktail party.

But doing what the Jennys - um, Sanford and the one from the block- did is no easy task.  Getting cheated on can hurt like hell and send you into a tailspin. So before you judge any woman who stays (especially a woman in public life), stand in her stilettos for a moment. Moments after she finds out that her husband has strayed, there are camera's in her face, reporters asking questions, and the public deciding what she should do, before she even gets a chance to cry or smack her husband's face. Not to mention get a chance think about whether she still loves her husband or what to do about the kids.  And then she has to watch every detail about the affair on TV over and over again: how pretty or not the other woman was, whether or not she was paid, and so forth.  The wife is subject to it all at once: the good, the bad and the fugly. Not an easy position to be in. 

So today, public attention is on another wife, altthough not a political one.  Unless you've spent the last few months in a cave, you know that golfer Tiger Woods cheated on his wife Elin with more women than she would want to count.  Elin appears to have left Tiger, having moved out of the couple's mansion and ditched her wedding ring.  But no one really knows her intentions, because neither she nor Tiger have spoken to the press... until today.

Just a couple hours from now, Tiger will publicly apologize to the public - and presumably his wife (why does the public need an apology anyway?) - for his philandering ways.  Will Elin stand beside her man political wife style, with a pained, humilated look on her face?  Or will she join the Jennys, leave her husband to his mess and keep it moving?

At 11 am EST today, inquiring (read nosey) Americans will be able to answer: What would Elin do?