This writer (on Foxnew FWIW) argues that if Monica had looked more like Angelina, there never would have been an impeachment trial.
Link
Does anyone else believe that this is true? Would the electorate in general and/or the press have viewed the situation differently given a hotter intern? I don’t think it would have made a difference to me but I can see how it might to some others.
Please note, this thread is not about Clinton bashing, it is simply about how we view activities of people based upon the attractiveness of the participants.
This seems like a bizarre assertion to me. What on earth would it be based on? Especially given the partisanship involved – the Republicans would have been just as happy to make hay with Angelina Jolie (so to speak). Anyway, it’s all a matter of taste, isn’t it? I’ve seen Angelina Jolie dissed on this board, and it’s not long before someone comes along swooning over Monica. Clinton noticed her, anyway.
I think that had Clinton had an affair with a celebrity (similar to the Kennedy/ Monroe) then it would have been viewed more of a playboy glamorous society scandal, than how it actually turned out.
If it had been Clinton/Angelina, for example, the country probably would have insisted on allowing Clinton a third term.
That’s not quite right IMHO. If Clinton had told the truth under oath, and if the dumped Monica and sued the U.S and the POTUS for sexual discrimination and/or sexual harrassment, the Republicans would’ve finagled some sort of criminal charge out of it - sexual assualt or battery or some such thing - and been away to the races.
As far as the OP goes, I think the premise and the linked to article are wrong. The public would not have shrugged off the Prez’s dalliance with a pretty intern anymore than with an average looking one. Hollywood stars haven’t been faithful in marriage for a long time, as Liz Taylor and Richard Burton and numerous others could attest. That doesn’t mean the standard is lower for nationally prominent elected officials.
I was pretty disappointed in him (that he picked Monica of all people that is). He was the President for god’s sake. All males at least acknowledge the idea that it would be cool to have any female you wanted if you chose to. He had that power and used it for forces of ugly.
His taste in women has always been extremely bad. The word FUGLY was coined for Gennifer Flowers and there are a whole string of suspected ones beyond that. Hillary was no looker either especially when he hooked up with her (she is a little better now).
It really just makes you stop and wonder what is wrong with the man’s mind in general. He apparently craves women and sex yet he chums for catfish even though he could catch trout just as easily.
I would say that it did have at least some impact. People were prepared to understand but then they break out the prize and everyone just gave that Beavis and Butthead look to one another. It is much easily to empathize with someone when you can appreciate the same thoughts.
I don’t believe it would have made a shred of difference. The attack dogs were determined to nail him with something, and they would have found a way, if they had to prove he cheated on a 3rd grade math test. Remember, it wasn’t public opinion that impeached him. It was the Republican Party.
Years and years ago I was sitting in a Dr’s office waiting room and I saw a magazine about “Bill’s women” and it had Monica, Gennifer Flowers, and a few of the others he was suspected/accused of diddling. Gawd, all of them were ugly. They didn’t even measure up to Hillary! If ever there was living proof of the “rooster syndrome” that man must be it.
As to the impeachment? No, I think it would still have happened. About the only difference I can see is the public opinion polls. I’m not sure if they would have gone up or down though. I can see them going up because people, mostly guys, thought “well, hell I’d have put my cigar in that too!” and the women may have been correspondeningly more turned off by the President’s behavior re-inforcing the shallow, looks-oriented culture so many resent. Still, the politicians pressing for the impeachment don’t respond all that much to public opinion polls(or they wouldn’t have pressed the issue like they did) so I don’t see that part of it changing.
The premise in this debate appears to be that Monica wasn’t exactly attractive. Let me tell you that when I see a picture of her smile with those full lips and sparkling exciting eyes, she gets me standing to attention. As a happily married man, it is fortunate that I wasn’t in Clinton’s shoes. I can never be sure how I would have reacted.
“what’s the point of being president if I can’t fuck Marilyn Monroe?”
Now that’s my idea of a world leader.
Clinton was a mortification.
Consider Paula. He concedes using the highway patrol to pimp for him, he just denies the part about the flagpole waving.
Then he crash lands his entire presidencybecaused he couldn’t bring himself (after the insurance company puts a quarter mill on the table) to say, Hey Paula, sorry I was such a jerk.
Once you send the highway patrol out gto hit on the girl with the nametags at the convention desk, you ARE a jerk. It’s not a big deal to admit it…
look, it’s not that she had nothing going on (in fact, I think shes in a phd program as we speak, and she was certainly acceptable for almost any bar you might be looking to meet someone in.
But we are talking here of a guy who can, as JFK indelicately put it in the referenced quote
fuck anyone
Even AJ…
(and not to put too fine a point on it, consider bill next to brad. Without the job, bill does not get the pussy.
Monica Lewinsky is an attractive, slightly zaftig woman. Frankly, I have more respect for Clinton liking a woman like this than I would if he had chased some skinny little blonde. She’s not my type, but if she were, I’d think she was hot.
And I’ve got to say that one of the disappointing things about the the whole Lewinsky affair was how brutally so many people on both sides of the aisle went after her over her weight. Same with Linda Tripp - Liberals, who are all about decrying sexism, lookism, and objectifying women, threw their principles out the window with Tripp, and hammered her mercilessly because she was ‘ugly’. It was pathetic.
All that mattered was the lie. The Pubs would’ve gone after him no matter what the chick looked like.
Monica was, shall we say, Rubenesque? But she wasn’t “ugly ugly”, if you know what I mean.
I thought Flowers was pretty hot back in the day. And didn’t Clinton have a fling with Elizabeth Ward Gracen, the Highlander chick, who was Miss Arkansas at one time? Yeah, I know, Miss Arkansas. But even still!
Clinton’s approval rating was 65% when he left office. That’s higher than both Reagan and JFK. Even after Monica he was well-liked and popular throughout the country. He would have easily won a third term if the Constitution had allowed it.
The Republicans were out to drag him down any way they could. If it hadn’t been Monica it would have been something else.
I believe this to be true. However, President Clinton did himself no favors lying like he did, and then trying to defend the lie. I was very unimpressed with his thought processes. Yeah, no married man wants to outright say he’s getting hummers on the side, but he walked right into the trap set up for him. Am I wrong to accept better and smarter from my head of state?
