Cindy McCain says the ex-fighter pilot is no great driver

Every presidential campaign wants to turn its candidate into a likable human being, someone you wouldn't mind palling around with. One way to do this is to plop the candidate on TV shows with Ellen and Oprah and Tyra and the chatty gals over at "The View." Another way to reveal the human side is to dispatch a spouse to the same venues, unless the spouse's name is Bill.

Last fall we learned from Michelle Obama that Barack tends to leave his socks and underwear around the house and doesn't smell too great first thing in the morning.

Last week, John McCain's campaign sent wife Cindy off to "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" to win the millions of hearts of those sleepy American voters about to go to bed six months before the election.

She did get in that her husband is so healthy he's going to hike the Grand Canyon again this summer. The Arizona politician's wife also revealed that:

* Her 71-year-old husband is "not the best of drivers," so she takes the wheel most times.

* When they met at a party, both lied about their ages, McCain subtracting four years and Cindy adding four. And neither discovered the real 18-year difference until a newspaper published details from their marriage license.

* At that same party, the Navy flier kind of followed her -- except she used the word "chased" -- around the hors d'oeuvres table, and the possible future first lady thought to herself: "This guy's kind of weird."

Tough times for Bill

Bill Clinton is destined to be disgruntled no matter how Campaign '08 turns out. At least that is the conclusion veteran political reporter and analyst Albert R. Hunt reaches in his column for Bloomberg News.

Hunt pulls no punches in assessing how the ex-president's efforts, which many have seen as ham-handed, to promote Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy have done her little good and deeply bruised his own reputation. "The most talented and resilient politician of this generation," Hunt writes, "has damaged his standing with gaffes, political miscalculations and a series of paranoiac, volcanic eruptions.

"A common question these days among political heavyweights -- including longtime Clinton devotees -- is this: How can a guy this smart act so dumb?"

What most intrigued us, though, was Hunt's view of how the three possible November outcomes would affect the former White House occupant.