Risky Behavior by Clinton and Kennedy

Efforts to impeach President Clinton express a recent tendency to expose and condemn sexual misconduct by national leaders. This new attitude is related to reports of frequent adulterous behavior by President Kennedy, published after his death. A comparison between these two Presidents of the United States may contribute to our understanding of both of them.

The similarities of Clinton and Kennedy are striking. Risky behavior is a prominent characteristic of both Presidents. Kennedy in 1952 ran against a popular and highly publicized Republican Senator, Henry Cabot Lodge, and in 1960 against the well-known Richard Nixon. Clinton in 1992 ran for President when the incumbent, George Bush, was at the height of his popularity following the triumphant Gulf War. Kennedy and Clinton are Democratic Presidents who replaced Republican Presidents and then adopted some traditionally Republican policies.

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Kennedy drew some sharp criticism when he introduced a federal income tax reduction. Clinton risked alienating Democratic voters when he downsized the federal government and advocated welfare reform.

Sexual misconduct is risky, especially in the limelight of the Presidency. The risky sexual misconduct by Presidents Kennedy and Clinton is partly attributable to frequent temptation. Many women are eager to have a sexual liaison with the President of the United States. The temptation was maximized because both Kennedy and Clinton came to the highest office as young, attractive, and charming men.

A further connection between the two Presidents is that Clinton as a high school student shook President Kennedy’s hand when a delegation of Boys Nation visited the White House. This experience contributed to Clinton’s ambition to become President. The strong identification of the only Arkansan President with the last Massachusetts President (Bush was born in Massachusetts but raised in Connecticut) may also have led to his wanting to emulate Kennedy’s risky sexual misconduct.

But there are also differences in the sexual misconduct of Kennedy and Clinton. Kennedy’s sexual misconduct indicates a compulsive need to prove his sexual prowess. His adultery was frequent, with a large number of different women, including a suspected East German spy and a girl friend of an organized crime leader. A model for Kennedy was his father, a successful businessman who was a notorious philanderer. Jack Kennedy grew up in the shadow of a highly assertive and esteemed older brother with whom he competed. He developed outstanding social charm and sexual attractiveness. A special incentive to test his sexual prowess was his chronic health problems. He had several severe illnesses in childhood, and his wartime injuries resulted in persistent back pain and Addison’s disease.

In my opinion, for Bill Clinton, sexual behavior is motivated by a search for love and affection missing in his childhood rather than as a proof of his masculine prowess. His father died before he was born, and his mother was away much of the time in his early childhood, leaving as his principal caretaker in his early years his maternal grandmother, who appears to have been punitive and who had an antagonistic relationship with his mother. When he was six years old, his mother married a man who was an alcoholic.

Bill Clinton learned to cope with turmoil in his family, becoming highly achieving and popular in school where he had many girl friends prior to his marriage—and some afterward. His sexual misconduct while President has been sporadic and usually cautious. In my opinion, his intimate contacts with Monica Lewinsky were not adulterous in the sense that he did not have sexual intercourse with her. They stopped at the level of heavy petting, most of which was by the woman. Clinton’s alleged perjury and conspiracy were attempts to maintain privacy, for the benefit of his family and Lewinsky in addition to himself.

There have been very different consequences of the sexual misconduct of these two Presidents. Kennedy escaped public condemnation of his frequent adultery. Many people knew about it, but they did not publicize it widely. A separation between public performance and private sexual misconduct has, until recently, been a national tradition. Reporters, therefore, have generally refrained from publicizing sexual misconduct by government officials. Another reason was Kennedy’s extraordinary personal charm. His political colleagues and the reporters liked him and helped to conceal his sexual misbehavior. During his presidency his girl friends apparently were loyal to him and exposed his sexual behavior only after his death. Another reason for tolerance of Kennedy’s sexual misconduct was his celebrity status. He was rich, had a famous father, was a war hero, and was a friend of movie stars such as Frank Sinatra. Many people expect and even approve sexual license by celebrities.

Clinton, on the other hand, has a lower middle class background. His Southern Baptist religious affiliation is moralistic and strongly condemns sexual transgressions. Another disadvantage for Clinton was the effect of the revelations of Kennedy’s frequent adultery while President. Sexual transgressions by politicians thereafter have been more publicized and disapproved. Gary Hart in 1988 was forced to withdraw as a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination because of a sexual escapade and Clinton may not have run in 1988 partly for that same reason. Clinton as a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1992 was confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct. Instead of emulating Gary Hart’s admission that he had committed adultery, Clinton shrewdly limited his confession to the statement

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that he had caused pain in his marriage. Clinton’s candidacy survived that episode, but it sensitized the public to the possibility of sexual misconduct during his Presidency.

Other disadvantages for Clinton are the Republican majority in Congress since 1995, the persistent investigations by the Independent Counsel, Kenneth Starr, and the moralistic emphasis of Starr and many Republican members of Congress. In a Southern Baptist tradition, when Clinton’s sexual misconduct was exposed, he therefore felt compelled to declare, “I have sinned.”

The intensity of the attacks on Clinton associated with the Lewinsky affair leads me to the question of the future prospects of President Clinton and the Presidency. I expect that Clinton will complete his second term as President partly because his chaotic childhood experiences taught him to cope successfully with difficult situations. He has great ability to conciliate colleagues, including Republicans. The majority of the public and many of the Republican members of Congress prefer to let him finish his second elected term as President. In conclusion, sporadic episodes of sexual misconduct, and attempts to conceal them, fall short of the criterion for impeachment of a public official, which is to be found guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

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