When I heard this on the news, the first thing I thought of was the long kiss shared by Al and Tipper Gore at the 2000 Democratic Convention. Maybe, this is what they will be remembered for, as a couple, because the Associated Press news video of their separation starts with the "kiss." The kiss that showed their love and affection for each other? Or was it a show? A performance, staged to demonstrate that Al Gore wasn't 'Mister Plastic', but he was 'Al the Passionate', that he was passionate about his wife, and, more important to voters, passionate about the issues, and he was not what I thought at the time that he seemed to be, a manufactured man, just a senator's son, schooled to be a politician, who spent his early and adult years in training for the Senate and for the White House? Al Gore went on to received the most votes in the 2000 election, and was robbed of the White House by the a decision of a corrupt Supreme Court 5 to 4 majority, that stopped the recount in Florida.
The separation of Al Gore and his wife, as are matters between a man and his wife, is their personal business. The best to them both.