Jul 16 2007
Excerpt From a 1992 Political Science Final Essay
It was May 1992. It was my first semester back at college after a break of several years. I was 27 years old.
The United States presidential elections of 1992 featured a three-way battle between Republican George Bush, the incumbent President; Democrat Bill Clinton, the governor of Arkansas; and independent candidate Ross Perot, a Texas businessman. Bush had alienated much of his conservative base by breaking his 1988 campaign pledge against raising taxes, the economy had sunk into recession, and the President’s perceived best strength, foreign policy, was regarded as much less important following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the relatively peaceful climate in the Middle East following the defeat of Iraq in the First Gulf War.
My final exam for my Political Science class involved writing 5 essays. It was a take-home exam.
One essay question was:
In recent years political scientists and journalists have focused increasing attention on the character and personality of the “man” who would be President.
First, explain why this increased focus on character came about?
Second, discuss the major elements of character in James David Barber’s essay on presidential character in the Woll casebook.
Finally, given Barber’s analysis and the reasons for this increased focus on character, how do you account for the focus on the character of Gary Hart and Bill Clinton in terms of their sex lives. Does a man’s private sexual behavior tell us anything about his presidential character?
An excerpt from my essay (reformatted from the original for ease in reading):
Recently, bill Clinton’s past as well as sexual history has been under a great deal of public scrutiny. His way of dealing with these issues by dancing away from a straightforward answer by being technically accurate, as with the case of his smoking marijuana but not inhaling, has led many to feel that he is not honest and trustworthy enough to be president.
In fact, his avoidance of dealing with issues straightforwardly has gained him the nickname “Slick Willie.”
Society has a general distrust of politicians but everyone wants to be able to trust his choice of president. An article in TIME (April 20, 1992) showed that the public is worried about what kind of character he has. For example, in a poll of 937 registered voters taken for TIME/CNN on April 9, 1992, 53% responded negatively to the question “Is Bill Clinton honest and trustworthy enough to be President?” and 39% responded favorably.
When using Barber’s guidelines for predicting how Clinton will be as president, the prognosis in not very good. Bill Clinton has shown himself to be someone who does not give straightforward answers, who avoids direct confrontation, and who will not technically lie, instead, he makes a stand based on that technicality (as when he told the press he hasn’t broken any American laws…which turned out to mean he broke the law in England), and will later recant or clarify if faced with evidence of his misdeeds.
Clinton is a great example of why society should focus on a candidate’s sex life and personal history. If we focused purely on his stance toward social issues, we would never know his “style” as far as being president. Clinton’s style shows that there is a good possibility that there would be a lot of lying and verbal maneuvering done if he became president. It would be best to know his character flaws beforehand and decide if we want a man like this to be our president, than trying to deal with them later if some major scandal or crisis erupted during his presidency.
The Monica Lewinsky scandal was a political-sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a then 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives and his subsequent acquittal on all charges (of perjury and obstruction of justice) in a 21-day Senate trial.
Clinton left office with polls revealing that most questioned his morals and ethics; however, he also retained a 65% approval rating, the highest end-of-presidency rating among all the Presidents that came into office after World War II.
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I miss Slick Willie. Yes, he cheated on his wife but things were just better then. I don’t like King George.
Are you telling me you predicted the sort of President Bill Clinton would be before he took office?
Ricardo: I don’t follow politics all that much and despite Clinton’s extraordinary charisma, I never liked him. There was something weak and immature about him and I didn’t trust him.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Blink” he mentions Paul Ekman and Silvan Tomkins who developed a facial reading system. Their analysis of Bill Clinton’s face was:
“Ekman recalls the first time he saw Bill Clinton, during the 1992 Democratic primaries. “I was watching his facial expressions, and I said to my wife, This is Peck’s Bad Boy. There was this expression. It’s that hand-in-the-cookie-jar, love-me-because-I’m-a-rascal look. It’s A.U. twelve, fifteen, seventeen, and twenty-four, with an eye roll.” Ekman called someone on Clinton’s communications staff about the incriminating facial tic and volunteered to meet with Clinton and work on it.”
The Clinton years were better but that doesn’t mean I have to like the man.
HMTKSteve: Yep.
I found it well, not quite funny but interesting that my essay essentially predicted that there would be a scandal if Clinton became president and this was based off Barber’s work! I did a quick Google on Barber and my impression (based on skimming) is that his predictions were uncannily accurate as to the type of presidency the President would have based on his character.
I’ll still take him over who we have now. But you are not alone in your feelings towards the man.
Gotta go with Ricardo on this one on this one…though I can’t hold my own in a political conversation in the least. I remember hearing this one interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now (back before I realized how depressed it was making me to listen to her, I used to like that show…) Anyway, it amazed me at the time – she just kept asking him things & he’d dance and dance around whatever the answer was until finally he blew up at her and called her impolite or disrespectful or impertinent or something like that and I was like “Wow!” so this is politics…
Ricardo: Glad to know I’m not alone. Most people love the guy.
Jill: I don’t follow all the issues so I don’t feel I can discuss politics. I mean, I have opinions but I also know that I don’t have all the facts. I am very leery of Spin. I’ve also seen how Clinton would dance around issues and in fact notice how politicians answer questions in general. It’s amazing how little they actually say when you start paying attention. I once listened to some interview on the radio – it was in South Africa – and the host was asking some leader about where the funds were some building were going and the leader NEVER ANSWERED THE QUESTION. He *sounded* like he was answering the question, but he wasn’t.
How to Be a Politician 101: Misdirection and Obfuscation
As bad as the current administration may be the seeds were planted during the 90’s blossomed into the troubles we face today. The first year of any presidential administration is more a result of the previous administration’s final year than anything the new president does.
HMTKSteve: I am not sure how many people think that way! I think that we were able to bask in the Reagan afterglow for a while. Clinton is obviously intelligent but he did have charm, charisma and good timing on his side.
I am not sure what policies he set in motion have played their part in what is going on now but I know that not the all problems that face any president aren’t caused by them alone.
I thought you were busy at camp?!
I am busy at camp! I do get to go home at night.
Tonight I have to go on a conference call and talk about my latest game that was just published. Sad thing is that I am dead tired and it is a west coast company so I have to stay up late for the call!
Have you checked the camp website? I know I mentioned it in one of my blog posts. I have one of the staffers compiling a daily report that we post (with pictures) to the website. You might even get lucky and see me!
HMTKSteve: I just checked out the camp website.
I know that you are one big tease so won’t waste my time “Steve Spotting!”
Cute German shepherd though. I’ll have to read through the posts more carefully when I’m not beat.
Good luck with the conference call and congrats on the new game being published.