In announcing they will divorce, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia provided the kind of backstage political drama you'll never encounter in the United States.
As sorely tested as Bill and Hillary Clinton's marriage was when they were in the White House, and as separate as their lives are reported to be now, as Hillary aspires to the presidency, do you think there was/is any chance in the world that they would/will tell the world they were/are splitting up? Marriage is an institution politicians with high aspirations cling to in America. The image is a crucial part of their appeal to voters. Even in this modern age, the idea of a single president or a divorced one is pretty unthinkable.
Rudy Giuliani, of course, bucked that rule of thumb during his days as mayor of New York. But just as France will always be France, New York will always be New York. We'll see how Rudy's checkered romantic life plays with the electorate as his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination progresses.
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