Eliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton, Potential "Bimbo Eruptions", and Hillary Clinton's Campaign

Watching Eliot Spitzer's press conference while his helpless wife looked on, one can't help but ask why powerful men all too often engage in reckless activity that can destroy their lives, their families, their reputations, and their political accomplishments. In the end, Bill Clinton gave one answer: "Because I could".

At 61, one has to assume that Bill "still can", perhaps with a Viagra assist. Clinton has always been a man of large appetites, for better and for worse. It's doubtful that his life as a sexually active male is over. And given his long history, one has to wonder if his sexual needs can be filled only by Hillary off on the campaign trail and his own left hand.

I'm not making moral judgments here. I don't care what the Clintons do or don't do in private. Many couples make spoken and unspoken arrangements to deal with infidelity. Millions of husbands forgive their wives and millions of wives forgive their husbands their infidelities in order to keep their families intact. If Hillary chose to stay with Bill through all the scandals to preserve her family and her chances to run for president, I don't personally begrudge her that decision.

But public revelations of Bill Clinton's private infidelities largely destroyed his ability to be an effective president during his second term, harmed the Democratic Party, and contributed to Al Gore losing the Presidency to George Bush, leaving us with the nightmare of the past 7 hears.

During the long campaign, Bill and Hillary rarely spend a night in the same city. Does Bill spend all those nights alone? (Obama makes a point of regularly returning to Chicago during the campaign to spend time with his family.)

Hillary will have a hard enough time defeating McCain if she wrests the nomination in a divisive Democratic Convention. Given the Clinton's history, one cannot discount the possibility of another Bill Clinton "bimbo eruption" in the middle of the presidential campaign. What would become of Hillary's chances if, during the campaign, she had to react to such public revelations and once again be forced to decide in public whether stand by her man or leave him?

I don't personally care whether Bill is unfaithful in private or whether he and Hillary have an arrangement that allows it. (And before readers accuse me of misogyny, this is not about gender. A male candidate having to publicly account for his wife's infidelity in the middle of a presidential campaign would be little better.) If Bill is still unfaithful and it becomes public during the campaign, it could that be the last straw that hands the White House to John McCain, prolongs the war in Iraq, extends tax cuts for the wealthy in the middle of a war and recession, and irrevocably hands an insurmountable majority on the Supreme court to conservatives for a generation?

And if Hillary does manage to get elected without a bimbo eruption during the campaign, what happens if there's a bimbo eruption after she becomes president? Would she throw Bill out of the (White) house? Would the nation have to live through the psychodrama of a presidential divorce? Would she yet again stand by her man? Most importantly, would such events cripple a Hillary Clinton presidency the way it crippled Bill Clinton's presidency and keep Hillary from implementing the "real solutions" that she promises?

Can Democrats take that chance?

Comments

[Liberal2]

Egads, another democratic penis for guys like you to focus on.

[magen]

The ONLY good thing that would happen if Hillary somehow STEALS the nomination from Barack is that Bill would be the first lady, and Hillary would be permanently busy.

Imagine the scandals!!!!!! It would be awesome!!!!!

[DudeE]

This is apparently what happens to female candidates. We wonder how it would look if the husband cheated.

Nevermind that the Republican candidate HIMSELF has had an extramarital affair. It's apparently of no relevance since his last name isn't Clinton.

[ckemp]

People who expect the former President to be in her bed when that phone rings at 3am need to think this through . . .

[myskylark]

What happens if there's a bimbo eruption after Obama is elected?

It takes a sleazy mind indeed to try to smear Hillary's campaign with this garbage.

If Eliot Spitzer could wind up in this position, so could anyone else.

We don't know everything about Obama, or Michelle, or anyone for that matter.

This dog won't hunt.

[Googleplex]

This article is funny.

Hypothetical speculation about Bill's inability to keep his pecker in his pants isn't really productive.

How about focusing on where the real lies are.

However, It almost makes you wonder if a Gov. only gets to be client #9, who gets to be client #1?

[TIME]

I wonder what would happen if Hillary were to find a man, which she had a discreet relationship with? Those appetites go both ways. She doesn't seem the type, and she does have more control than her husband, but you never know.

[hopeless277]

The way Billary's campaign is going, I would not be at all surprised if Bill had and 'accident', possibly fatal. Just think of the sympathy she would receive. It would solve so many of her problems.

[BeeOplentee]

You are right , of course. But remember that just the day before yesterday it was unthinkable that Eliot Spitzer (the champion of ethics) would be caught figuratively with his pants down. On that note of disbelief, what makes you think that suave, debonnaire Barack Obama won't have some surprises of his own revealed by the nefarious Repubs?

[idontthinkthisishelping]

Once again, we know about Hillary's skeletons (the wisdom and level of education -- yes, at the time, of her Senate votes, her claims of "executive experience," her refusal to offer evidence of such but for a speech, her offering evidence of such with another speech in N. Ireland and a USO danceline of three in Kosovo, her actively campaigning for another hawk, apparently not inconveniently the nominee of the opposing party)

But we don't have any evidence that Obama has stopped beating his wife, so always go with the Monster you know even if she is nothing more than an S&L for Pharma and Healthcare Insurance lobbyists.

[mmogu77]

Anything's possible. But Michelle Obama doesn't strike me as a person who would stand by her man if she had ever caught Barack with another woman, so it doesn't seem likely.