Bill may be a sex addict or a womanizer – it certainly is nothing new in politics, where money, extramarital sex and political power form an age old trifecta. At the time of the impeachment , Bob Livingston and Newt Gingrich who led the charge were also engaged in affairs, and Tom Delay had a long history as a womanizer.

Wanting a break from the sordidness, we chose as a nation, George Bush, whose history did not include adultery, just alcholism, cocaine use and business failures until age 40. We need to decide if we are going to decide on the basis of competence or chastity. Since both party’s frontrunners are either serial adulterers (Giuliani) or married to serial adulterers (Clinton), it appears most Americans are more interested in competence than a president’s bedroom behavior.

Many past presidents were in unhappy marriages and/or had affairs on the side, yet were able to perform on the job.FDR was an adulterer, yet led us ably through the Depression and WWII. Other major leaders in history like Martin Luther King were unfaithful- yet can you imagine the civil rights movement without him? Presidents who were faithful- like Bush and Carter have made poor chief executives, leaving legacies of failure and disaster.

Actually, this particular book contains a lot of interesting information about Ford vis-a-vis Nixon and Ford’s pardon of Nixon,

Publixhers, I think, take advantage of election fever to time the books coming out, and as a result, these books are combed for what can be used as ammunition rather than insight

If only Clinton rook Ford’s deal we could have been spared the impeachment.

Clinton came out of it well, and, IMHO, much of the country realized what a bunch of lunatics that particular batch of GOP’ers was.

IMHO, Ford’s portrait sounds reasonable to me.

I would not place much stock in the opinions of an old ex-president as opposed to a competent therapist. It’s fair to call Bill C an adulterer but sex addict?????? But as others have pointed out Hillary’s sex life is almost “virginal”.

Actually Ford said positive things about Hillary and she’s the one who’s running, not Bill. But its just like you and others to spin this as harmful to Hillary.

The relative outrage value of addictions and character flaws is also strange. Pres. Bush’s problem with alcohol gets only rate mention (something I applaud) but when it comes to sex,,,,,oh, my! Monica will live longer in the nation’s psyche than Watergate.

What I want to know is how a presidential candidate would handle the next Cuban millile crises, the next
Katrina, the next (and current) Viet Nam.

Instead, attention swirls around what is, relatively speaking, trivial. I have my own question re Hillary, but none of them concern Bill’s sexual habits or addictions.

No wonder Europe laughs at the nature of our politics. I would laugh, too, if I wren’t busy tearing my hair out.