AOL News, I see, has picked up yesterday’s front page New York Times story on the Clintons’ marriage, or as the paper put it, their “Delicate Dance of Married and Public Lives.” Drudge teased the story on Monday, though in a way that suggests his leakers might have misled him. “NYT: STATE OF CLINTON MARRIAGE A QUESTION FOR DEMS,” his headline announced. While raising this point, the story essentially declares there’s no need for such concern. Leon Panetta, the first prominent figure quoted, dutifully notes, “…you know there’s something there that basically bonds them.”

The Times interviewed some 50 people for the piece — the consensus finding being that while the couple “have built largely separate lives,” that’s only because of “their distinct career paths” and certain “political calculations.” Bill keeps his appearances with Hillary to a minimum, so as not to hog the spotlight which should be focused on her as she moves toward a possible presidential run. Nonetheless, they see each other a lot in private — roughly on 14 days out of every month. The piece turns out to be rather adoring, with all usual references to their long sought “zone of privacy,” the “natural evolution” of a marriage that “has had plenty of stresses and betrayals,” Hillary’s revelation in her memoirs that they had “sought counseling.”

Has Bill been behaving himself? The Times covers for him by noting that the time he was spotted with a prominent Canadian woman, “the two were among roughly a dozen people at a dinner, but it still was enough to fuel coverage in the gossip pages.” One insider in fact notes that Bill recently gave Hillary a diamond ring, and describes her reaction thus: “When someone shows you something like that, ‘This is what Bill bought me,’ kind of gleaming, it meant something to get it — it meant more to her that he bought it for her than what it actually was.”

By the way, 59% of AOL’s online poll responders say they are “not at all” intrigued by the Clintons as a couple.