Is Monica Lewinsky still unfairly slurred as lacking in intelligence and morals?

Question

Was she just young and naive in 1998?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/01/AR2007010100701.html

Answer 1

Probably. If Bush has an MBA from Harvard and is called an idiot, I'm sure she will not receive any less unreasonable coverage.

PS I do feel sorry for her. The article (which I read in my morning paper) makes the point that she may have trouble finding a mate, if that's what she wants.

It would be hard to get that image out of one's mind, I assume, while trying to kiss her:

http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/list_hero_19-Esquire-12_00.jpg

Answer 2

Partly, but not totally

I think she was "taken" by Linda Tripp, whom she trusted. However, Linda Tripp is just a higher profile of a false friend that lots and lots of people have encountered during the course of their lives. Often they come on too strong when they pretend that they want to be someone's friend, just in order to get them to confide.

She was, as you suggest, naïve, and she needed a bigger education in the school of life. Unfortunately, she had to get hers publicly. She should have been aware of the possibility that her phone conversations were being tapped or recorded. She IS a bit of a scapegoat, and I have noticed that women's hormone levels seem to go up around Bill Clinton, for some reason. This observation might not say great things abut the females sector of the human species.

I do not feel very sorry for Bill Clinton, the old womanizer. I do not feel all that sorry for Monica Lewinsky either, maybe a bit. On the one hand, I think she was being used by older and more powerful women who fancied they were smarter than she was and needed a power trip to prove it and enhance their own self esteem. However, any woman who believes that having sex with a president or powerful male figure is a step up the social ladder, needs to establish a sounder value system as well as reassess her current one.

Maybe she should go watch 'Mean Girls', again, or for the first time. The whole affair sounds like a more serious adult version of the movie.

Is Monica Lewinsky really intelligent? Why is it important for Monica Lewinsky to be intelligent? So what, she had a Master's degree in social psychology or something. Well, George W. Bush has an MBA from the prestigious Harvard Business School, and he looks like he was just hit over the head with a hammer. Both Monica Lewinsky and George W. Bush are well-connected. What I would like to know is the level of both of their compromises. I suspect that both of them might have been born with about average intelligence, and might have had some given or possibly "taken" by a or the wizard. Furthermore, universities and colleges are turning out too many psychology degrees. It is not possible to accommodate all the people who want to make a living in psychology. Some of them do not even seem to know themselves. Having a father who is a medical doctor or specialist does not necessarily make anyone any smarter than the average person. The "intelligence" issue is ridiculous.

Answer 3

Actually, it very well may be that Monica's past did not come into play as much as it COULD have. Ask a few of the older cab drivers from Beverly Hills Cab Co. and they will tell you (if they worked there before 1997) that she was well known for going out to party during the weekends then calling a cab from that company. The story goes that once they picked her up and drove her home (to daddy's house)she would say that she was out of cash. She would however offer for the cab driver to "feel these" as payment.

I heard this story (with minor variations)from more than one cab driver from that company but I cant say it is true for sure so take this with a grain of salt as I did. It just seemed strange to me that when a cab driver and I would engage in a conversation about current events (back in the day) that more than one had the same input.

The second guy said that if they knew it was her calling at the end of the night they would not want to show up for her lack of cash payment habit. One guy said that once,
when he refused her "offer", she angrily said she'd pay him but had to go inside the house to get the money. He said that waited and waited and finally had to lay on the horn for minutes at a time before she came running down with some cash. (Which makes some sense in a way as I am sure the neighbors would not be happy if a cab driver had his horn blaring in the middle of the night in such a posh neighborhood.)
If these "stories" have even a bare minimum of truth to them then perhaps she is not the naive young lady that many people in Washington want us to believe.

Answer 4

Either one or the other, if not both. This is a person who said she flirted "subtily" by lifting up her skirt and showing a married man her thonged backside. That is about as subtle as a sledge hammer to the head. No question she was a slut for at least a period of time, and once you get a rep, it is very difficult to remove it. As to intelligence, sure, she made some money and her 15 minutes of fame, but I would not want that kind of notariety at 100 times the fame and fortune. Having sex to gain money or priviledge is just another form of prostitution

Answer 5

Monika Lewinsky? Slurred? I don't think she is, and in fact I don't think she had it that rough. She was and still is an excellent example of what American culture as transformed into. I think she was celebrated, though most would not admit it. She was an adulteress who did it at the highest levels of American society but she was never labeled or chastised as one would think in a nation that portrays itself in the highest of moral standards.

Was she naive? No, she was an American girl, a normal American girl. This is the nation where in a undercover story a man disguised as a priest was hit on and basically had young American girls throwing themselves at him. It;s apart of the American culture, it's embedded deep in the soul of the American girl. She was doing the only think she knew how to do, that's far from naive.

Answer 6

I don't know what her IQ is, so I can't speculate on her intelligence, although she doesn't seem to be a whiz kid. As for morals, can there be any question ?
I'm from the old school, when anything sexual was strictly between husband and wife. Bill and Monica were not husband and wife. Both are - - - - you finish it.

Answer 7

What she did will follow her around for life. No matter how much money she makes, she will always be known as the girl who did that in the oval office with Clinton. Big mistake.

Answer 8

Oh man.. Monica Lewinsky? Who really cares, I mean if ever there was a detraction from fact while the world went to hell she's it... not her fault of course, but again... very low on the importance spectrometer..

Answer 9

Who....cares.

But to answer your question, yeah, I think it's pretty obvious that she's been slandered in the public forum, she still is and she probably always will be. I suppose she's also gotten a load of money out of the whole deal in various ways. But let's not forget that her "claim to fame" basically involved doing what practically everybody does, only with a highly-scrutinized individual. The only truly unique aspect of the affair was that it was catalogued in its minutest details by Ken Starr and other like-minded perverts for all the world to survey.

Answer 10

Anyone, no matter how young and naive, who has no conscience about messing around with a married man, is a study in lack of morals. It's hard to think of her as anything but a common tramp.