Full Disclosure: This is for an assignment in an upper division course I’m taking called Rhetorical Criticism. However, the professor suggested that we pick the brains of those with different idealogies than ourselves. If the mods want to close this thread because of the general moratorium on homework, I understand.
That said, here’s the idea. The professor submits that had Clinton submitted an apologia within 48 hours of the Lewinsky scandal breaking, Ken Star would still be a nobody and Bill Clinton would have a legacy.
An apologia is a speech that doesn’t necessarily apologize, but is designed to make a problem go away one way or the other. The examples we looked at in class were Nixon’s “My Side of the Story” speech regarding shady campaign contributions in 1952 and Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick speech.
So the assignment is to come up with Clinton’s apologia. The only parameter is that we can’t change history. Can’t have Clinton divorcing Hillary or anything. But I’m not really looking for help in that regard. I don’t want any help actually writing this thing.
What I’m looking for are your opinions on what Clinton should have said to the nation right after this mess broke. I’m especially interested in the opinions from the conservatives of the board, and also of the older dopers among us.
Remember, I’m not looking for help writing this. I don’t want this thread closed down. Just general opinions.
The trouble is that I can’t think of anything Clinton could have said (besides lying) that would have resulted in anything but a call for his resignation.
“She came on to me”?
“I was going through a tought time im my marriage”?
“The pressures of the job got to me”?
“If you think about it, she’s not even that attractive. Do you think I’d go the whole way with someone like her?”?
“I’m just a regular guy”?
“It was wrong, but it was consenting sexual activity between two adults, and we didn’t even go all the way”?
“It was tantamount to masturbation”?
“I’ve talked about it with my wife and my daughter, and they’ve forgiven me and agreed to draw a line under the matter. I call upon you, my fellow Americans, to do likewise”?
Okay, this is better, but wouldn’t that just raise a whole load of speculation about what actually happened? And wouldn’t people assume that he’d had intercourse with her? The only way to convey that message is to say what they had actually done, and then you’re back with the problem of specifics that all PR wants to downplay or avoid.
Maybe a lot of guff about “America” would do the trick, but you guys aren’t that naive, are you?
This must be a rhetorical assignment, since I can’t imagine a real-world scenario where Ken Starr and his right-wing masters would let up on Clinton without anything short of a virtual coup d’etat.
How about a scathing, yet sincere, attack on the National Enquirer mentality on the media and the insatiable appetite for scandal? Why not [rightfully] attack the right wing hatchet job that was the Lewinsky affair?
Why not say,
"Listen I am human with all the frailities of any human. I understand that this job is the most visible job in the world and carries with it great interest, curiosity, and responsibility. I understand that it is often a lightning rod for critics and for those who have an agenda. I also understand that with great freedom, particularly the freedom of speech, that we must allow that there will sometimes be abuses, and there will be those who appeal to our base instincts and pander to the lowest moral denominator.
But while I am the President of the greatest country on earth, I am also just a man, a father, and a husband. And while our great freedom allows the press to print the most salacious of claims, and my political opponents may choose to take the low road for political gain, I too have the frredon to respectfully object to the offensive invasion of my personal and family affairs and to say simply, “It’s a matter between me and my wife, and my family and my God. It’s none of your business.”
America didn’t need to know any of that. It was NONE of our business. Nor did he need OUR forgiveness. He didn’t need to lie at all. He shouldn’t have been asked the questions in the first place.
It’s funny to me that the legacy of all this is Clinton’s heartfelt gaze into the camera with the words "I didn’t have sex with that woman. " It sullied an otherwise pretty accomplished presidency.
Why didn’t the right wing political hacks in general, and the jackals in the mainstream press get what they deserved from history? It was THEM that made what a personal matter into something that we somehow had a right to know about in gory detail, and in a perverted irony needed to somehow forgive him for.
SHAME on ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN et al. They acted reprehensibly. The GOP was no better. Clinton acted like an idiot. But that is [was] his personal idiocy and none of our business.
I’m not sure about either the content, or more especially the tone, of this bit, thoughy the rest is excellent. And I’m speaking as an older conservative type, albeit not an American.
My feeling is that this bit sounds too East Coast liberal, too clever, and too smarmy. It would do great in an inter-varsity debate but not in the type of apologia that is beinbg proposed. “Those who have an agenda” works less well in a context such as a television broadcast from a contrite yet firm and dignified POTUS. It would tend to elicit the response from middle America of “At least we don’t have our cock up an intern’s snatch”, which would I think be undesirable. The same goes for “abuses”, “base instincts”, etc. I won’t elaborate. Less is more.
What I’m thinking about doing is having Clinton apologize, but not to America. Instead, it would be an on-camera apology to Hillary and, by extension, the rest of his family. There’d be an implication of “it’s our business, not yours” but without actually saying it.
Even if he’d screwed around in the Oval Office, I don’t regard that as the operative failing. Far worse was using employees and agencies of the government to cover the whole matter up.
I agree with you Moto. I don’t think using the Oval Office was fatal in se. I’m just saying that it destroys any opportunity to use the “our business and not yours” defense.
It wasn’t the Oval Office. That meme has been popular in the hate crowd because it somehow gives an air of seriousness and “the people’s business” that the incident lacked. It was, in fact, a side room, the one in which Bush keeps Saddam’s gun now. The same one Harding is thought to have used for his own “relaxation” events, btw.
I agree that it was part of a broader effort to nail Clinton for something, anything. Starr had already gone through everything Whitewater-related, and the Foster suicide, Travelgate, FBI-gate, and I know I’m missing something, until his midnight-at-Denny’s collaboration with the Scaife crew working the Jones-suit end. If that hadn’t struck paydirt, there’d be something else. No speech would have made any difference to the hate crowd; they’d have dreamed up other reasons to hate him.
True. So I’m thinking any theoretical apologia would have to include an explanation of why he, personally, President Bill Clinton, signed the law which made it the public’s business and why he thought he was so special that a dumb law which he, personally, President Bill Clinton, signed should apply to everybody except for him.
Quite a stretch about the reason for the Special Prosecutor law, manny.
Remember Watergate? I’m sure you do. That’s the kind of thing it was for, you know, abusive official acts, done with the power of office. Not blowjobs.
Remember Whitewater? Perhaps you don’t; it disappeared long before the Gotcha moment. That was Starr’s charter: Whitewater. The extensions of it were authorized by Jesse Helm’s appointees, not Clinton’s.
Know why the law no longer exists? Starr’s abuse of it.
You do know better, of course. Simple partisan bashing posts like your last one belong in the Pit, not GD.
How about something like this, only more verbose and eloquent:
I had an affair with Monica Lewinski while she was an intern. The affair included sexual acts performed in the White House. I regret the affair. It did not interfere with my job performance. All other details are the exclusive concern of myself, my wife, and Mrs. Lewinski. Thank you.
BILL Clinton shouldn’t have been the one giving the speech. HILLARY should have.
The Democrats would forgive him with Hillary, the Republicans would murmer for a while and puffs of steam would come out of their ears, but they wouldn’t be impeaching him. It was Clinton’s attempts to evade resolution that got things to controversial.
Ultimately, it was stupid, but it will be the legacy of an otherwise mediocre and unremarkable presidency. Plus it would have been political gold for Hillary.
I agree. The only problem with this speech was that it was about a year too late. I couldn’t have cared less if he got head from someone other than his wife. Just come out and admit it, take all the wind out of Ken Starr’s sails, and get on with the business of running the country.