Whose spouse is Rick Santorum talking about?

"When you look at someone to determine whether they’d be the right person for public office, look at who they lay down with at night and what they believe in... Who is the person at their side who has.. the closest counselor to that person? If you want to find out if that person who you are voting for is going to stand tall and stand tough, find out where the spouse of that person is."

Spoken at the Value Voters Summit yesterday. (Video at the link.)

Alec MacGillis wonders whose spouse he's talking about:

Might it be the wife who reportedly urged one candidate to order a mandatory vaccine for the HPV virus? Or the wife who, lo so many years ago, gave $150 to her local Planned Parenthood chapter? Or, perhaps, not a wife at all, but the lone husband in the field of spouses? Hard to believe, given that said spouse has taken such vigorous action in fighting the scourge of homosexuality, a mission Santorum also cares deeply about. In any case, let's hope Santorum can clear this matter up at next week's debate in New Hampshire.

MacGillis assumes Santorum was talking about the spouse of one of the GOP candidates, but he might have been thinking about Michelle Obama. Should we feel that it's appropriate and even important to scrutinize the candidates' spouses? It's conventional to say that the family is off limits, but I'll bet a lot of Obama opponents feel he might have been defeated if spousal scrutiny were regarded as fully legitimate.