The Real Running Mates

are the subject of the cover story I wrote for this week's dead-tree TIME:

Bill is far from the only spouse rewriting the rules of the road in presidential politics. Of the 2008 candidates — and particularly among those in the top tier — more than a few are married to outspoken, opinionated, professional women who are neither accustomed to nor inclined toward melting into the background. They are comfortable with, even eager about making news in their own right. Since the 2008 campaign promises to be more competitive, more expensive and more prolonged than any we've seen, the spouses are playing roles more typically associated with the running mate than the mate of the person who's running. In fact, the reality of today's politics seems to have turned Nixon's premise on its head. A strong, smart, fully engaged spouse is practically a prerequisite if you want to win. Sit down and talk to some of them, and you will realize that while they all are charting the terrain ahead in their own ways, they do so with the conviction that their partner can't get there without them. As Cindy McCain, 53, put it, "He and I are the only two in it in the end."

Also featured on our website are a photo essay and a questionnaire in which we discover that the Giulianis and the McCains love "24," the Clintons and the Romneys try not to miss "Grey's Anatomy," and Elizabeth Edwards doesn't ever want to look at another chicken caesar salad. And more seriously, I wrote a separate TIME.com story on how Ann Romney and Elizabeth Edwards are dealing with--and bonded by--the serious illnesses they face as they try to get their husbands elected.