Maureen Dowd
New York Times
March 12, 2008
Eliot Spitzer seems to be the most popular man of the hour on which to write an opinion article. This article also deals with his uses of a prostitute. Dowd begins by explaining the operation of hookers among high-powered politicians, mentioning the prices and scams of such actions. However, she also goes on to mention what she recently heard a woman say "This story is all the proof we need to elect a female president." This might not be such a good idea, as history has created many woman leaders who got caught up in the sex/power scandals. "Catherine the Great was hardly known for her restraint. And there were Agrippina and Cleopatra, of course." It may not be such a good idea to generalize men as being stupid and prone to immoral sexual conduct. But because of this attention to Spitzer's sex scandal, the public is becoming reminiscent of Clinton's administration which may have negative effects on Hilary's campaign. Obama is now getting all of the attention and Hilary is possibly envious. Dowd goes on to mention that Lyndon Johnson once observed that the two things that make politicians more stupid than anything else are sex and envy. I believe this article had good opinions from both sides of the issue, whether or not Hilary should be in power just because she is a woman (which may suggest she would not have any such scandals) or Obama should be in power because he is not associated with the Clinton scandal. It really made me think about the social schemes of politics, and sadly this makes me think of how much we are voting for a person and their image rather than the good they will do to our country.
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3 comments:
This post made some excellent points about what we truly vote on. We rarely see who the candidates really are and it's all but impossible to predict the type of president they'll be. So much of a campaign is sheer image and battling smudges finding their way to the surface.
I completely agree with the previous post. From researching our candidate for our presidential presentation, candidates strive to make a good image for themselves rather than express who they are. They will play up certain roles in society and downplay others. The article brought up some very good points on how voters are influenced not only by the candidates themselves but also by events surrounding a candidate's election.
I really like this article and i agree with the comments made by the previous two publishers. I think that a lot of what we see and hear about the candidates during the election is not who are they are but what they think we want them to be. We never get the chance to see the real person untill they have won and been put to work. Then we can see who they are and what their personality is like.
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