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I thought I read, one time, that it was taboo to investigate a President's private/sex life, yes or no?
I just watched a PBS DVD on the Clinton Presidency, and it's hard to believe that the Republicans, at that time, would spend an inordinate amount of time, trying to prosecute Clinton for something that should have never have been brought up in the first place.
In Europe, Do Europeans give a whit if one of their married leaders is having an affair while in office?
To your point of when the press began investigating private lives of presidents, probably the early 1970s. Kennedy's affairs were ignored by the press. If Nixon had had one, they certainly would have reported it. My guess is that deference to authority, dissipated a great deal between 1966 to 1970. So, somewhere in there.
Sexual harassment by powerful men became a cause celebre for Democrats around 1990. Democrat Bill Clinton didn't change with the times. I guess Paula Jones was the first "me too".
We can go back to President Cleveland when he ran for president with the chat directed at him "ma ma, where's my pa" for his child out of wedlock. Hamilton's private life was a scandal, but he was not president. But perhaps the first with a president was the campaign of 1800. Jefferson had to deal with two accusations: being called the Coward of Carter's Mountain and the catchphrase of “Mr. Jefferson’s Congo Harem” referring to his relationships with his slaves.
To your point of when the press began investigating private lives of presidents, probably the early 1970s. Kennedy's affairs were ignored by the press. If Nixon had had one, they certainly would have reported it. My guess is that deference to authority, dissipated a great deal between 1966 to 1970. So, somewhere in there.
Sexual harassment by powerful men became a cause celebre for Democrats around 1990. Democrat Bill Clinton didn't change with the times. I guess Paula Jones was the first "me too".
With other words, soon after the "sexual revolution" took place in the US.
We can go back to President Cleveland when he ran for president with the chat directed at him "ma ma, where's my pa" for his child out of wedlock. Hamilton's private life was a scandal, but he was not president. But perhaps the first with a president was the campaign of 1800. Jefferson had to deal with two accusations: being called the Coward of Carter's Mountain and the catchphrase of “Mr. Jefferson’s Congo Harem” referring to his relationships with his slaves.
So the question here is whether his *scandalous behavior* was discussed because of the relations with multiple women, or because these women were from Congo?
In modern history, the Gary Hart scandal probably made the personal sexual lives of Presidents and Presidential candidates fair game.
<<Those of us who had been at the center of his Senate work and presidential campaign teams were now tumbling along with him and his family in the center of a political and media centrifuge -- one which had no precedent, which we could not control, and which ultimately spit all of us out unceremoniously.>>
In modern history, the Gary Hart scandal probably made the personal sexual lives of Presidents and Presidential candidates fair game. As noted in the following discussions, the Watergate scandal greatily changed the media's perception of its role in investigating Presidential misbehavior.
<<Those of us who had been at the center of his Senate work and presidential campaign teams were now tumbling along with him and his family in the center of a political and media centrifuge -- one which had no precedent, which we could not control, and which ultimately spit all of us out unceremoniously.>>
The Clinton Lewinsky scandal was a matter of public interest because it involved a White House intern. I've been told by a federal labor relations officer that any federal employee who had engaged in such an activity would have been terminated.
So the question here is whether his *scandalous behavior* was discussed because of the relations with multiple women, or because these women were from Congo?
More due to the women being african americans. In the south sleeping with black women was kinda taboo if you were white but it happened all the time! To admit it, marry an african american woman instead of an white or treat the children of such a relationship as legitimate would cause all hell to break lose socially.
A black man sleeping with a white woman risked DEATH....no matter how consentual it was.
It was not taboo, it wasn't talked about. I would have to check the sources, but it was almost expected or rather understood it would happen. In 1662, it was happening enough that VA broke with English law on the status of children; a child's race and status would follow the mother, not the father. (Virginia's first slave law was in 1640.) Slavery evolved in the early 1700's in VA into a well codified institution especially with the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705. Until the ban on importation, there were two ways to get slaves into the colonies, importation and breeding. In the late 1700's slavery transformed from seeing them as inferior beings (Jefferson's Notes on the States of VA) to things and objects including even as collateral in business. There are several new studies out on the breeding industry but it did not start abruptly with the ban on importation. Visitors to Monticello would comment on the number of light skinned slaves, it wasn't unique to him.
The campaign of 1800 was especially ugly. They threw everything they had at each other.
I thought I read, one time, that it was taboo to investigate a President's private/sex life, yes or no?
I just watched a PBS DVD on the Clinton Presidency, and it's hard to believe that the Republicans, at that time, would spend an inordinate amount of time, trying to prosecute Clinton for something that should have never have been brought up in the first place.
In Europe, Do Europeans give a whit if one of their married leaders is having an affair while in office?
Politics has always been an ugly game, the only thing that has usually been offlimits is a politicans family but even that is becoming fair game, particularly if they are an adult. Topics that would have been taboo in the past are being brought forward more now becaue of mass media and social media. In the 19th century of course the news was slow, not everyone could read. Now people have access to TV and internet and the rise of "fake news".
Europe? Yes they do, there have been plenty of sex scandal's impacting European leaders. Silvio Berlusconi comes to mind.
Indeed the investigation of Clinton might have been hypocritial but, like always, it was the reaction to the investigation by Clinton that got him in trouble. The impeachment of Clinton was the results of charges of "perjury" and "obstruction of justice".
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Gary Hart scandal
