“It would be easier for a woman [to win] who had gotten there on her own, like Margaret Thatcher,” Smith said. She said it would be difficult to predict how the couple, who once pitched themselves as a “two for one,” would share power. If Hillary wins in 2008,. “which President would it be at any given moment?” she asked.

In addition to the Essence interview, there are a number of other indications Clinton is trying to feminize her image. She has appeared on ABC’s “The View” where she chatted about her hair, joked about her penchant for pantsuits with CNN, and discussed her pregnancy with daughter Chelsea in recent weeks.

Richard Collins, president of StopHerNow.com, which seeks to mobilize people against Clinton’s candidacy, said “It’s all showbiz.”

“She uses everything like a prop. Just like that cat she discarded.”

His reference is to the Clintons’ former First Feline, a white-footed cat named Socks. As First Lady, Mrs. Clinton published a children’s book that featured the cat, titled “Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids’ Letters to the First Pets.” After leaving the White House, the Clintons gave the cat to Mr. Clinton’s personal secretary, Bettie Currie.

While the Clintons appear to be willing to release some details about their relationship, a great number remain, literally, under lock and key.

On the campaign trail, Clinton touts the experience she gained as First Lady working on matters like healthcare, but public access remains closed to records inside her husband’s Presidential Library that deal with policies Mrs. Clinton was involved in shaping. The taxpayer-funded library, located in Little Rock, Arkansas, has been operating for nearly three years, but only one half of one percent of the records are available to the public.

Michael Isikoff reports in the new edition of Newsweek that Mr. Clinton made a November 2002 request to the National Archives, which controls this information,that “confidential communications” related to foreign policy, “sensitive policy, personal or political issues, “legal issues and advice” which encompass federal investigations and “communications directly between the President and First Lady, and their families, unless routine in nature” be withheld.

Subsequently, numerous Freedom of Information Act requests submitted by reporters and authors like Smith to the National Archives to gain access to these documents have been refused.

The Clintons have also declined to disclose the names of those who donated money to the library.