Saturday, May 13, 2017
The effect of the Monica Lewinsky scandal on Bill Clinton's Presidency
So we all know that the Monica Lewinsky scandal left a dark stain on Bill Clinton's Presidency and led to his impeachment, although it didn't end up removing him from office. It is well known that from the start of the investigation, Clinton lied about the affair, which ended up getting him impeached for perjury, or lying under oath. This leaves us with the question of, if he had told the truth from the start, would he have had to deal with more issues or less issues than he did when he lied about it? This is an important question because of the reason the affair came to light in the first place. The origin of the discovery of the affair was a lawsuit against Clinton by a woman who worked with him years before who charged him with sexual harassment. As a part of the lawsuit, the woman's lawyers were interviewing all women who worked closely with Clinton to see if any similar incidents had occurred. If he had told the truth about the affair, it could have meant worse things for him from the lawsuit, but instead he lied and got impeached. Another, slightly different, topic to consider is that Clinton's approval rating peaked at the height of the scandal at a solid 73%. What does the fact that we approved more of a married president who had an affair than the same president when we didn't know about the affair say about Americans as a whole?
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I understand that you are implying Clinton's approval rating was in some part influenced by his personal life. What Americans have to decide for themselves is whether or not a political officer's personal life should affect how the public views him/her. The fact is that Clinton's policies largely contributed to the first budget surplus in forty years and well as other notable achievements. There is still this idea today that a President's personal life might indicate how they might behave in office, and in some cases has interested the public more than the debated policies.
ReplyDeleteIf Clinton had told the truth from the start, he would have been able to avoid digging a hole for himself for later parts of his presidency, and would have dealt with fewer issues than he ended up with. Clinton's situation is quite similar to Nixon's, but Clinton at least ended up with a good approval rating in the end (the highest for any president since World War 2). I feel that, in these kinds of cases, the American people tend to be more drawn into the president's affairs and involvement in scandals rather than the bills they approve or their understanding of foreign policy.
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