{"id":10354,"date":"2007-03-29T13:22:32","date_gmt":"2007-03-29T17:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10354.html"},"modified":"2007-03-29T13:22:32","modified_gmt":"2007-03-29T17:22:32","slug":"the-medias-unhealthy-obsession-with-the-clintons-personal-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-medias-unhealthy-obsession-with-the-clintons-personal-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The media’s unhealthy obsession with the Clintons’ personal life"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a year ago, the New York Times ran a 2,000-word, front-page article<\/a> with salacious speculation about Bill and Hillary Clinton’s marriage. Two days later, David Broder devoted a column<\/a> to the Clintons’ marriage, describing it as “a hot topic.”<\/p>\n

Since then, the media seems to have let their interest in the Clintons’ relationship die down a bit. That is, until this piece<\/a> ran on the front page of USA Today.<\/p>\n

The possibility of Bill Clinton returning to the White House he left six years ago raises some questions that are far touchier than whether Americans are ready for a “first gentleman.” As an ex-president, how much influence would he have in his wife’s administration? Will memories of the Monica Lewinsky scandal haunt Hillary Clinton’s campaign and drive away voters? What’s the status of the Clintons’ marriage \u2014 and does it matter?<\/p>\n

In a new USA TODAY\/Gallup Poll, 70% of Americans say Bill Clinton will do more good than harm for his wife’s campaign. Yet questions about their marriage \u2014 as well as the Lewinsky sex saga that led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment by the U.S. House in 1998 \u2014 remain close to the surface. The reminders include a stream of jokes on late-night TV and even Hillary Clinton’s own words, such as her recent joking reference to her experience with “evil and bad men.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please. This is entirely self-fulfilling — the media obsesses over the Clintons’ personal lives and then tells the public that the issue “remains close the surface” a decade after the Lewinsky matter. Why? Because the media says so.<\/p>\n

I can appreciate the fact that Hillary Clinton is the most credible woman presidential candidate in American history, and it’s only natural for some to wonder what role a “First Husband” might take on. But this article appears to be much more than that — it’s an excuse to delve into the Clintons\u2019 personal lives and rehash old speculation from 1998.
\n<\/p>\n

The undercurrents are worrisome to some Democrats intent on winning back the White House, even those who say they don’t care what kind of relationship the Clintons have. Bill Clinton is “a net plus,” says Todd Gitlin, a sociologist and writer at Columbia University. “But any remnants of the old stuff about his sex life” could be “an impediment on the electability front.”<\/p>\n

In the new poll, taken last weekend, 42% said Bill Clinton has “learned his lessons” from past scandals. But 51% said he is “the same person he always was.” Nearly 70% predicted that Democrats supporting other candidates for the nomination will try to make “past Clinton scandals” an issue, and 85% said Republicans will try to do so in the general election if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee. Three-quarters said the state of the Clintons’ marriage shouldn’t matter to voters \u2014 but six in 10 predicted it will.<\/p>\n

Democratic strategist Susan Estrich, a law professor at the University of Southern California, says Democratic “elites” on both coasts are concerned about Bill Clinton, but typical voters aren’t. “There’s all this talk out there,” she says, but it won’t matter unless “a smoking gun in a blue dress” steps forward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of this seems like an excuse to run salacious quotes about the Clintons’ personal lives. But even if we put that aside, here’s a question I have for USA Today: why did the poll only include Clinton?<\/p>\n

By that I mean, even if we give USA Today the benefit of the doubt and concede that a presidential candidate’s personal life is pertinent, and the possibility of infidelity in a couple’s relationship is worth both a poll and a front-page story, then why focus on one candidate who’s never been accused of adultery … when there are three Republican candidates who are admitted adulterers<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Why would USA Today focus on what kind of person Bill Clinton is, rehashing decade-old speculation, but ignore the fact (in the article and in the poll) that several of the leading GOP candidates are guilty of the same sin?<\/p>\n

Note to the media: if you’re desperate for salacious stories about presidential candidates with scandalous pasts, there are plenty of candidates to choose from<\/a>. None of them are named Clinton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a year ago, the New York Times ran a 2,000-word, front-page article with salacious speculation about Bill and Hillary Clinton’s marriage. Two days later, David Broder devoted a column to the Clintons’ marriage, describing it as “a hot topic.” Since then, the media seems to have let their interest in the Clintons’ relationship die […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}