If a politician wishes me to respect his personal life, then he needs to respect mine. The all-American image they eagerly convey is as important a credential as their voting record. And it deserves no more privacy. If a politician wishes to pull a protective veil over his marriage, then he shouldn't pose his wife in photo-opportunities. Indeed, to broadcast a pre-packaged image without testing its veracity would be to function as a propaganda machine.
Journalists tend to eulogize the coverage of decades past.
They look back wistfully to the days when President Kennedy's notorious adulteries received no comment from the press. I believe that silence was a breach of public trust. It is now common knowledge that J.F.K time-shared a mistress with a notorious Mafia leader. And, during the Cuban missile crisis, Americans had a right to know that the man with his finger on the button was addicted to drugs. No politician has more skillfully played the family card than Kennedy did, and it is outrageous that the media played along.