How The Spitzer Sex Scandal Could Help Hillary

A woman president is not going to be Client 9 of the Emperor's Club VIP sex service.

A woman president is not going to get arrested for soliciting sex in a rest room at the Minneapolis airport.

A woman president is not going to be caught sending hot text messages to young congressional pages.

Many voters may find these arguments persuasive in the wake of the Elliot Spitzer story: if you want to avoid losing your leaders to sex scandals, vote for a woman.

The voters most likely to be persuaded by this argument are, of course, women. And there are a lot of women voters in the Democratic primaries yet to come, and among the superdelegates.

The notion that Hillary could benefit from the Spitzer scandal goes against the conventional wisdom in the blogosphere today, which holds that it hurts Hillary because, as Matt Yglesias wrote, it will "make people worry about the fact that putting Bill Clinton back in the White House seems to raise the possibility of once again having a Democratic administration derailed by a sex scandal."

To say that many voters might find Hillary more appealing at this point is not to say that Barack Obama or John McCain is likely to be caught in a sex scandal. Either possibility seems extremely unlikely.

Of course it also seemed extremely unlikely that Elliot Spitzer would be caught violating the Mann Act.

The question is not whether we will see new revelations, but whether disgust over Spitzer's destruction of his career will lead some voters to look to a woman for freedom from sex scandals.

Comments

[nypoet22]

an interesting point. you know, they've already tried to pin sex scandals on obama. if you search it on youtube you'll find the lies as well as the proof that they're false. but facts never got in the way of right wing smear campaigns before, so how long can it be before fox runs a story?

[klondiker]

True freedom means the freedom to be moral and freedom to be immoral.

The day a woman president can have a sex scandal, and be looked at in the same way as a man, we will have achieved gender equality in the United States.

[JXB]

Let's hope that freedom from blunderous preemptive wars, impertinent authorizations to go to war, defense spending waste, lobbyist influenced public policy, cronyism, and executive action harmful to the country and its democratic institutions will figure far higher in the voters minds than freedom from sex scandals.

[Dave01]

I'm surprised that she she hasn't actually pointed her finger at Obama and said it wasn't Spitzer it was him! Oh that's right, she'll probably call the skit writers over at SNL to do that for her! They seem to have endorsed her at this point!

[RallyRound]

I think that if you asked the Clinton campaign if they were at all happy by the Spitzer affair, the answer would be a "no."

The idea that she is helped the situation points to the idea that she is best known as the woman who stood by her man, not the strong politician who she is.

[JAJ2007]

I agree with your premise that a woman is less likely to be caught in a sex scandal. Part of that is that to date, I don't know of any prominent women politicians who have been.

However, to translate this into a positive for Clinton is a stretch. If she had divorced Bill - THEN this would be a positive for her. However, a sex scandal is going to make people think about Bill - his peccadillos, the blue dress, the impeachment, etc (ick ick ick) Granted - this is not fair to Hillary, since Spitzer's problems have NOTHING to do with her. However, the media connected these dots within a few hours - and they are still talking about the parallels. This can't be seen as a net positive for her - since a "bimbo eruption" by Bill at this point would sink her candidacy (or her administration). And frankly, I think this combination / comparison would have been made even if Spitzer hadn't been a super delegate for Clinton, but that certainly didn't help.

For the record - I don't see this as a positive for Obama either... I think this is a MESS for the democratic candidate (whichever of them becomes the nominee.)

[timetraveler2039]

Watching the pain and agony on Mrs. Spitzer's face yesterday, and remembering the Tammy Wynette performance of Hillary Clinton when she stood by her man -- surely you JEST!!!!

[NABNYC]

This is wonderfully ironic: the Clintons accusing others of probably intending to have sex outside of marriage and therefore being unfit for office?? What's the story here? Hillary's campaign theme will now be: Don't vote for any men. They all screw around, the louses. Vote only for women. None of us like sex. "

Every time Hillary is asked what "challenges" she has faced in her life, and she gets that tee hee look on her face, then says she's known a few "bad boys," I just about barf. Either her husband screwed around without her knowledge or consent and humiliated her, or it's all a big joke. But she seems to change the story as often as she changes campaign themes.

Well, it's a new campaign theme, and she does need a new one every week.

"Experience." "Change." "Vote For Bill. You Liked Him Once." "Commandress in Chief." "I'm white and the other guy isn't." "He's too stupid to be President, so let's make him Vice President."

And now, the one that likely will be picked up in the history books: "Vote for me. I'm female and I don't like sex, and I never use prostitutes." I think it's a winner.

[bccity]

I think your entire post is something you experienced in a dream. It is all conjecture and has nothing to support any of it but if it makes you feel better to rag on Hillary then go for it. It really is not very nice to speak bad about someone behind their back, you know the gossip thing. I will not tell her this time but do not let it happen again.

[WLA]

I disagree with the premise here. Seems more to me like it hurts the Clintons by dragging up old memories. Nice spin, though.

[pigsatthetrough]

Does this mean we need to have a woman on top? Is this going to be why we elect a certain person? What the hell happened to discussing the terrible news that five more US military personnel died yesterday in Iraq?

[AlphaDoc]

Really . . . I had to chuckle at the thought of voting another Clinton into the White House in order to free the American public from the threat of sexual scandal. You can't possibly be serious, Jon.

[MPeter]

What cave do you live in? You do not know about cougars? Hillary is a cougar. Do you even know how old her Egyptian Lesbian lovewr is? the one she has consistently overpaid and rents a condo for, in NY? Get real. Hillary is just as dirty as Bill or Spitzer.

[robXdion]

This is Checkmate,

She's trapped. If she disavows and denounces Spitzer she makes people wonder WHY she stayed with Bill.

If she supports him she risks further looking like less of a feminist and enabler of womanizers in light of supporting and staying with Bill.

No way out.

[2LaneIA]

You assume that Hillary Clinton has been the faithful spouse through years of Bill's philandering. She is now at an age and a public station in life where it is somewhat less likely that she would take a lover. But I do not understand ho0w you can rule that out because she is a she.

[Dave01]

Ya but most of them are probably dead....you have seen the long list of "friends" that have died, right? Oops did I really type that?

[kingfishstew]

Somehow, the hated George Bush made it through without a sex scandal.

[AlphaDoc]

That's only because Mrs. Beasley can't talk.

[Anastasia]

Au contraire. The Eliot Spitzer affair will remind everyone of another politician's notorious sex scandal and downfall.

If Eliot Spitzer stays in office, it will bring back a flood of memories, to when Bill Clinton was fighting tooth and nail, not to be impeached.

If Spitzer resigns, the reaction might be, "why didn't Bill do that?"

There's also the issue of whom they choose to have sex with. While Bill did not go to prostitutes, he did prey on young and vulnerable women, some of whom were his employees, none of whom could be said to be his peer.

Sex with underlings is about having power over the sexual partner. It's the same with prostitutes.