There is no more fascinating subject than other people’s marriages. And when the spouses are the former president of the United States and the world’s most powerful woman, our prurience is licensed by public interest. Over the past few days Bill Clinton has acquired a saintly aura for rescuing two American women journalists from captivity in North Korea, at the cost of paying court to that country’s eccentric dictator, Kim Jong-il.
But even as Mr Clinton proves once again that he merits his nickname of “the comeback kid”, commentators are already asking how his boundless political ego will fit in with his wife Hillary’s role as secretary of state, and in the wider Obama administration.
For Mrs Clinton, there are all too many examples of family members serving as a politician’s Achilles heel. Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who became US president in 1977, sent his wife Rosalynn on a diplomatic tour of seven Latin American countries at the start of his presidency, which was seen as an early sign of political naivety. She sat in on cabinet meetings.
Jihan Sadat, the wife of the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, never hid her strong belief in women’s rights. But by giving an interview to the American magazine Playgirl – apparently unaware of its adult content – she handed to the opposition a perfect opportunity to accuse her husband of betraying Islamic standards of morality.
The prestige of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, never recovered from his marriage to Suha Tawil, who was the constant butt of accusations from his entourage that she was interfering in politics or trying to influence business decisions.
