POLITICS

Do you ever think about Laura Bush? May sound like a strange question, but it's really not: Do you ever consider what life must be like for the woman married to the most powerful man in the world? The author Curtis Sittenfeld is picking up the slack. She has parlayed a deep fascination with Laura into the 558-page novel, American Wife, which imagines the courtship and marriage of a librarian named Alice and her hard-drinking, baseball-team-owning, born-again husband Charlie Blackwell. Through good times and hardship, a doting Alice stands by Charlie's side—all the way to the White House. (Did I mention she even imagines their sex life, too?)

The United Nations estimates that 5,000 women worldwide are killed each year in the name of preserving a family's honor. The transgressions that these women commit to justify their deaths? Being raped, wearing Western clothing, marrying a man from the wrong sect or community, and communicating with men on Facebook, to name a few. Often, their brothers or fathers carry out the murders themselves. Pakistan is currently under the media lens after a member of its Parliament vindicated the mass killings of five women--three teenagers deemed guilty of dishonor after attempting to marry without their families' permission and two older women who tried to stop them from being killed--as "centuries old traditions," ones he vowed he would continue to defend.

You probably heard that news that John McCain's VP nominee Sarah Palin has a seventeen-year-old daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and plans to marry the father. In today's New York Times there's a piece with the headline, "In Political Realm "Family Problem" Emerges as Test." Swap in the word "relationship" instead of "political," and you could be describing the experience of meeting your significant other's family. The questions in both the political and relationship realms are these: How much is someone's family a reflection of them, and should your lover's clan influence the decisions you make about him or her? In the relationship realm, someone's family probably isn't a

We all know about politics make for strange bedfellows. Can political or religious identity be a deal-breaker? Catie Lazarus finds out if some of these differences make a relationship incompatible.

  Politico-dependent, fili-lust-er, and cast-ration. Update your dating slang in time for the 2008 elections with this video. Love Lexicon's Political Edition takes the politics of love to a new level!

Massachusetts has long been a liberal pioneer. But they've tempered some of their enlightened ideals to enhance relationships with other states. But the state Senate has voted to repeal an act that allows out-of-staters to get married in Mass. Who knows where this is going next.

Someone over in the magazine world decided that politicians are celebrities and ought to be in celeb magazines. These magazines are mostly known for who slept with who but now it looks like they've found a more interesting sport: politics.

Wondering about the candidates in the presidential primary? YourTango's got you covered. As part of our series exploring couples in the presidential race, we bring you inside the marriage or Ron and Carol Paul. "Ron Paul is running for the Republican Party Presidential nomination on a platform of no-jokes Libertarianism, which whether one agrees with his politics or not, clearly is a sign of determination. His wife of nearly 51 years, Carol, has stood by Paul throughout his medical and Congressional years, as well as his time on the campaign trail, despite requiring heart surgery to implant a pacemaker while garnering support in Iowa in August 2007."

Part of Tango's series on the couples of the 2008 presidential primaries, we go inside the marriage of Republicans Mike and Janet Huckabee. "They met in junior high school; by senior year, they were dating. At the age of 18, he didn't quite have the money for an engagement ring yet and proposed with the pull-tab of a soda can. They married in her parents' living room in Hope, Arkansas, in 1974. One could say Mike and Janet Huckabee have humble beginnings and have culled a rock-solid relationship over the last 30 years. During the last two decades, they have shared success and hardship."

My boyfriend voted for Bush. Yes, for Bush. And he'd vote for him again if our Constitution allowed it. Now let me duck while you spit at me. No, please go ahead. Really, I'm used to it. When this happens—the attacks, the spittle—I sometimes enlist a coping strategy. I tune out and think back to when I discovered that J was one of Them.

In our series on the 2008 presidential couples; Tango explores the Clintons. Bill and Hillary; love 'em or hate 'em; are the most dynamic couple in American politics. Tango gives you a little insight to what kind of presidential pair they would make.