The West Wing Opening Credits

scotty: exactly my point. We spent two years wallowing in the scandal and some pundits have pointed out that the Clinton administration was distracted (busy defending themselves) to the point where serious issues weren't dealt with as effectively as they would have been otherwise.

For better or worse, our culture is what it is. The news media will never let this stuff go because it gets ratings. You'ld think pols would learn, but based on John Edwards' latest affair they apparantly aren't.

WHY? Even if it was on the news, why did it have to be the focus of so much attention? Why did Clinton's getting head have to be the only thing on the news for two years? Was there nothing more important to report?

Go to other democratic countries. You'll discover many of them don't really care about the private lives of their politicans as long as it doesn't affect them, as Clinton's affair did not.

scotty: I think you're missing my point. In today's media environment, every pol knows that scandal will get 24/7 coverage. Fairness and reasonableness has nothing to do with it. Clinton's real foul was to put his entire administration at risk for something frivolous. He KNEW if he got caught it would hamstring his administration for years...but he did it anyway. The man was callow, reckless, and hubristic.

The Reps should not have impeached him though and they're paying for it now.

And even if the president doesn't get a personal life, or his affair has to be public, there was no reason for it to be as big a deal as it was and the only thing on the news for two years.

Yeah, he committed perjury and was punished for it. He was fined and disbarred. He wasn't removed from office and rightfully so.

Well, Clinton's earlier affair with Jennifer Flowers didn't cause the same uproar the Lewinsky one did.

The GOP spent Clinton's entire eight years trying to pin something on him, and the best they could come up with was lying about getting oral sex from a consenting adult woman.

soctty: you sound like my mother now; a FDR liberal Dem. Of course presidents have been adulterers in the past; FDR, Eisenhower, JFK, the first Bush, etc. But this in no way excuses Clinton.

And ALL pols understand that in the modern era the Pres doesn't GET a personal life. Everything is reported and the pols know it. Clinton put his entire administration at risk.

BTW, it may have been about sex, but it was still felony perjury. The Pres doesn't get a separate set of laws for himself.

I'm working my way through the series. I'm halfway through season two. The VP was a weasel from the start. But, to date, no backstabbing between Bartlet/Leo/Josh/Sam/Donna/CJ/Toby. Just one big happy family.

Re Lewinsky, I'm not letting her off the hook. Of course she knew what she was doing...she was looking for a trophy and a career (writing a book, talk show circuit, etc.).

And I got some news for you. Check your history and you'll find Bill Clinton was NOT the first US president to screw around on his wife, not by a long shot.

He was just the first to have a ridiculous political and media witch hunt done on him for it.

No, it wasn't right, but it was no one's business, but his, Hilary's, and Monica's.

Lewinsky may have been young, but she knew damn well what she was doing.

From that comment it's clear you haven't watched the show. It does show scandals and backstabbing.

Example; in the series the vice president resigns after leaking classified information to a woman he was having an affair with.

Here's one more tidbit for you. I'm a right-of-center independent and 90% of the responses I get on Youtube are negative.

But the funny thing is, the most testy responses are not those on political or economical issues. The most agitated responses are about TV/movies. Isn't that funny? What the Youtube crowd is apparently most concerned about are snide/sarcastic comments re their fantasy world...like West Wing. They just can't handle criticism of their heroes.