Politics and Sex

I was very happy that Barack Obama won last night's Iowa caucus. You can call me an Obama boy---yes. I've got a man-crush on the senator. I was trading emails with Ginger and she asked me about some of his positions, and then wrote that she didn't like Hillary because a woman shouldn't be president---they're too emotional while men think much more logically.

Huh?

I blinked, but then sentence was still there. Wow.

OK. A little background here. I was very involved in politics while I was in college---student senate, United States Student Association, all that stuff. I was in charge of lobbying efforts for awhile, worked on campaigns, travelled to DC a few times and even got my ass whipped running for the state legislature. It seemed like a career in politics might be in front of me, if not as a candidate (I inhaled and did a lot more) then as an operative or PR flack or speechwriter. However, it became apparent that I really didn't have the "stuff" for serious politics. I acquired a reputation as a party boy---I spent a lot of time in Georgetown bars when I should have been going over presentations that I was to deliver the next morning and I found the allure of available sex with female political volunteers too tempting to pass up. Having my name and picture in the campus paper meant that I got laid on a pretty regular basis which ain't bad for someone who can't throw a football and that's really what I got out of my early political involvement. Many of my friends have risen highly in government, and I wish them all well.

Consequently, I tend toward political cynicism. The sort of speeches most candidates deliver on the trail are filled with the sort of cant that the average hack can whip up in ten minutes with a whiskey hangover. And the ambition of most candidates will usually exceed their intelligence.

However, I was left speechless by Ginger's political sexism. And I wondered---does she really believe the shit she just wrote? If I heard that opinion from a guy, I'd have a quip ready that would probably make him my lifelong enemy. But from a woman? I chose not to respond to the email. I didn't have time to get into a long email back-and-forth.

Just for the record, I'm also perplexed by those who support Hillary just because she is a woman. Bill ran on a fairly pro-feminist platform in 1992 and votes from women upset over the handling of the Clarence Thomas hearings played no small part in his electoral victory. Having a wife who was tight with the National Organization for Women didn't hurt either.

That Bill Clinton had a "woman" problem didn't bother me per se. Truthfully, if I had had access to the women he did I probably would have been just as bad. What did bother me was the use of private detectives to dig up dirt on the women he had had sex with. And what really really bothered me was when the Monica scandal broke and the first reaction out of the White House was to paint her as a deranged stalker.

Remember? Now, readers of this blog already know that I'm not a "nice" guy. I have juggled multiple girls and have had affairs with married women. I won't win any good citizenship awards in the near future. However, what the Clinton White House did was too much even for me.

I'm sorry. A girl is nice enough to give you a blowjob on request, you should at least be nice to her. Especially when there's an age difference and an imbalance of power like that. If you want to deny, then deny. You won't be the first to lie about an affair, nor the last. But to smear, to publicly smear the reputation of someone whose only sin was to blow you and tell a friend about it is beyond arrogant. It is sociopathic. And that detail tells me all I need to know about the power couple who are angling to get back into the White House.