NYT reporter Patrick Healy notes that the presumptive presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton will inevitably Drudge up questions about their marital relations.
When the subject of Bill and Hillary Clinton comes up for many prominent Democrats these days, Topic A is the state of their marriage — and how the most dissected relationship in American life might affect Mrs. Clinton’s possible bid for the presidency in 2008.
[…]
The dynamics of a couple’s marriage are hard to gauge from the outside, even for a couple as well known as the Clintons. But interviews with some 50 people and a review of their respective activities show that since leaving the White House, Bill and Hillary Clinton have built largely separate lives — partly because of the demands of their distinct career paths and partly as a result of political calculations.
[…]
Since the start of 2005, the Clintons have been together about 14 days a month on average, according to aides who reviewed the couple’s schedules. Sometimes it is a full day of relaxing at home in Chappaqua; sometimes it is meeting up late at night. At their busiest, they saw each other on a single day, Valentine’s Day, in February 2005 — a month when each was traveling a great deal. Last August, they saw each other at some point on 24 out of 31 days. Out of the last 73 weekends, they spent 51 together. The aides declined to provide the Clintons’ private schedule.
Matthew Yglesias observes,
Frankly, I’d like to know why Healy can’t just drop the silly insinuations and faux investigative methods. Both Clintons have official spokespersons, just ask them how often Bill and Hillary have sex. When they don’t say, you can run a nice juicy headline like “Clintons Stonewalling on Sex Frequency Issue,” or, to repeat a classic Monica-era format, “Clintons Dogged By Sex Frequency Questions,” as if these things just come out of nowhere. If you’re not going to ask straight-up, or even write clearly what you’re talking about, then what’s the point of all this?
A good question.
