On the question of the nature of Hillary and Bill Clinton's marriage?

Question

I think it's interesting that there are so many people who think Hillary stayed with Bill simply for her political career. I don't agree that's the whole reason, but let's play devil's advocate and say that she did. What does that make her? Ambitious, yes. Calculating, yes. Intelligent, yes. Knowing her history, this seems to be a woman who has harbored the dream of being President since her college days. Even when First Lady, I suspect she had her plan laid out to become a Senator, then the President. Why should she have let her husband's infidelity ruin those plans? If she would have had a harder time as a divorced woman, and it's pretty clear she would have, why let his idiocy ruin her plans? Why is that bad? Why is it okay for men to be calculating, ambitious and aggressive about protecting their career plans but not a woman?

Would love to hear some opinions on this.

I know I'm asking a lot, but I would like to get answers to the questions posed specifically, without general smear crap about Hillary accompanying those answers. Thanks!

Answer 1

The thing about this that really irritates me is this.

Hillary Clinton loves Bill Clinton and has almost from the first moment she met him. If you have never read Mariness's account of Bill Clinton it's the best out there.

There is nothing more to the story. When she married Bill Clinton, she was the star. People were falling all over themselves to talk her out of it. But she loved him and believed in him.

The reason Hillary is successful today, is because she is a principled person. She takes her vows seriously both to her husband and to her country. I'm sick of people acting like she is evil. The evil is the distorted view of the Republicans who tarnish and contaminate with their lies and smear campaigns.

I really feel sorry for the people who can't see just what a quality person she is. Is she flawed, certainly. Has she made mistakes, yes. Has she been guilty of too much ambition? Who in Washington isn't.

People should be begging her to run for President and praying that she wins.

Answer 2

I completely agree with what you are saying.

Whether she stayed with her husband for career reasons or her own personal beliefs in the "bond of marriage", I feel this would take a very strong woman to stay with her husband through this situation for either reason.

The specific issue you are bringing up has to due with what women have been battling with for years. The "old double standard". When women know what they want and know how to get it, they are seen as threatening. When a man does the same thing, they are seen as brilliant.

I don't think it should matter if this is what she did or didn't do..and it shouldn't even matter. What should matter is what a kind of a political figure she is and what she can do for our country, especially in this time of war and all the consequences we are seeing because of it.

However, I do think it's bad that in the 21st century, that society standards still won't let men and women play by the same rules. I hope my children will see the day...I don't think I will.

Answer 3

And why is Mrs. Vitter somehow viewed as honorable for doing the same thing, particularly after villifying Hillary for doing it? I don't think there's a rationale behind it. Hillary is viewed as fake, and rightly so in some instances. She certainly doesn't come across as sincere to me all of the time. I think this is why some question her motives. However, the gender-based double standard that you raise is legitimate. Although I do not know of an example where a male politician's wife cheated, but he stood by her anyway. I could conceive of the public viewing this as weak or calculating in order to preserve the public facade. Personally, I think it is foolish to think you know enough about total strangers' personal lives to form an opinion on how they should behave. There's a reason they are called personal matters. For most people, however, they just bash Hillary for being the leader in the Democratic nomination battle. It's why I will always have misplaced hatred toward Derek Jeter. He's the face of the franchise that I have grown up rooting against.

Answer 4

When people say calulating, ambitious and aggressive, the memory of Gray Davis, California's former governor comes to mind. Here was a man who had planned his political career to the nth degree with the buzz being the California Statehouse was just a stepping stone to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The only problem was he was a horrible person in a leadership position. He had the juice to get there but not the tools to do the job once he did get there, which is why he was recalled.

I see the calculating nature Hilary has and my memory is still very sharp of Gray's ambition and drive only to see him almost bankrupt the 7th largest economy in the world.

My opinion of the Clintons is that Bill was a great President but Monica was not his first affair. This one just became public. I draw the parallels between the two and the fact that she is willing to allow Bill to cheat rather than divorce him, in order to further her own political career is a large red flag to me. She may ultimately have the juice to get the top spot but if she's as inept as Gray Davis was, then we're all in trouble.

Answer 5

I don't think any of us are mind readers so we don't know Hillary's motives for staying in a marriage after finding out her husband committed adultery.
Yes, she is ambitious and calculating. She's intelligent but I doubt she stayed with Bill so she could be president. Many spouses stay with partners after they found out they cheated. This certainly isn't unique. I know many people who've done the same thing.
It's the same, old, double standard. Men can be aggressive and pushy and they're labeled ambitious. Frequently, when a woman has the same characteristics, she's consider a b**ch.

Answer 6

Bill Clinton was not the first president to cheat on his wife and he won't be the last. To date, no wife has divorced a previous president.

Personally, I think the people who have an issue with the Clinton marriage are people that just hate them. Everyone has a family member, a friend, a coworker, (or themselves) who has cheated and it was exposed to their spouse... a lot of times the spouse stays... either way, its not anyone's business what their decision is.

I don't like the Clintons... I never did... but I don't hate them. I am just not interested in their private matters.

Answer 7

Whether it is a master plan or not I don't know. Who am I to judge her motives. But even if it were true what difference does it make? Do you think she would be the first presidential candidate to have ambitions? Or maybe she gets the attention because she is a woman. Heaven forbid she acts the same way an ambitious man does.

Answer 8

No matter how 'enlightened' and non-sexist ppl think they are, they are very tradition minded when it comes to choosing a President. That's the primary reason most Presidents have been married men with children.
I frankly don't think that most ppls' problem with Hillary is that she is a woman. Their primary objection is her ideology which is somewhere slightly right of V.I. Lenin. The hunger for power is not limited to the male gender, it is only that women have traditionally channeled it to other pursuits than the Presidency. The single-mindedness of Hillary in this regard is unusual. Also unusual is her attempt to be all things to all ppl and her flip-flopping on the Iraq war.
My final thought is that by the time Sept. 2008 rolls around, ppl will be so sick of this campaign that most will stay home in November.

Answer 9

I agree with you. Hillary & Bill make a great political team. It is my belief that they need each other & sometimes need, or more specifically, to be needed & to fulfill that need, makes a stronger bond than "being in love". Not every couple can be Ron & Nancy.

Answer 10

Read almost any book on infidelity, and it will stress that the COUPLE must be the ones who make the decision of whether to stay together or not. It's not our business.

That said? Sticking my nose into their business anyway? I do like your point. Why SHOULD Senator Clinton have let her husband ruin her plans?