I’m watching “Clinton” on PBS/Amazon Prime and am in the middle of the Lewinsky affair.
I don’t want this thread to become political and I’m not (in this thread) criticizing Clinton’s politics. However, in this documentary, even his supporters like Robert Reich are dumbfounded at how terrible of a risk that Clinton would take by endangering his presidency with this young girl.
As much as I disagree politically, the man devoted his life to his career. He was successful at everything he did. Is there any psychology behind the reasons why a man like Clinton would take such a terrible risk to have the numerous affairs that he did? A need to be loved? I would think that a person that lacking in self-confidence could never be as successful as Clinton.
First, you must establish that it occurred to him that having affairs could become a political problem, rather than merely endangering his family life. I’m not certain he saw it as a big risk, whether or not he should have.
Because many people have piss poor impulse control, especially when their genitalia are yelling at them to GO FOR IT? Also, many people get off on the danger and forbidden aspect to naughty sex–way more than they get off on the sex itself.
Basically, It’s hard for the average person to understand because they’ll never have chance of having sex with hoards of young attractive people, constantly.
Both are true. Another factor with somebody like Clinton is that the kind of person who becomes President is driven by a sense that they can control events. Clinton probably told himself that while his numerous affairs could theoretically be a problem, he would handle everything so the problems didn’t occur.
For those of you who have played Dungeons & Dragons, I’ve long theorized that Bill Clinton’s mental statistics are:
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 3
Charisma: 18
Brilliant guy, and, from many reports, incredibly adept at demonstrating empathy with people. But, daaaaamn, dude, terrible judgement and impulse control.
He was good-looking and women threw themselves at him, I am sure. Power breeds power. He took the pretty candy, because he could.
I don’t excuse him at all. He was a womanizing horn dog. He knew better, but at the time he didn’t care. It’s a miracle Hillary didn’t kill him. He threw away such promise.
She wouldn’t kill her meal ticket. How do you figure he threw away anything? He was a two-term President of the Greatest Country In The World, and now gets ass-tons of cash for just showing up places.
That all ended with Gary Hart and “Monkey Business”, in the presidential race just before Clinton’s first win. And as already noted, he took a lot of heat for earlier affairs, so he knew it wasn’t “hands off” anymore.
As for the OP, I can only think that we can’t know without being in that position. It does seem to be inconceivably stupid, yet it’s surprisingly common.
I feel like his legacy is tarnished beyond repair. I believe Hillary may have pulled that up if she were able to prolong the Clinton machine. Too bad. Just think what they could’ve done.
These guys should just be rock stars instead of politicians. Maybe Clinton should have stuck with the saxophone. I’m fuckin’ sick of these guys who are supposed to be the shepherds of our democracy continually getting caught with their dicks in the sheep.
He had experience with Gennifer Flowers. He knew what happened to Gary Hart. He felt the need to lie about Lewinsky.
I appreciate the responses, and maybe I could understand if Lewinsky was an absolute bombshell; but, nothing against her, but she is very average to possibly below average. Clinton could have had Mayflower Madam-style pussy if he was so inclined (and he was). Why risk the presidency for less than top shelf, even if you are a risk taker?
