by Stephen Austen

Created on: March 18, 2009

In the modern age of politics it seems that as long as a politician or even a President or Prime Minister appears to be getting on with the job in hand he or she may act with moral impunity as much as possible as long as those moral lapses do not interfere with the running of government. Bill Clinton was forgiven for lying to the entire United States concerning his affair with Monika Lewinsky just as long as he was able to carry on conducting governmental affairs. Although he was impeached and subsequently acquitted, he was also admired for his attitude to the sexual acts he indulged in with Miss Lewinsky when he could no longer keep it secret. Now, I am not for removing a President from office for having an extra-marital affair, but to virtually applaud him for his human weaknesses is pure crassness. Yet because of Bill Clinton's charm, most of us still like him, including me. However, it does beg the question what else good ol' Bill lied about to the nation? A moral lapse in one area of an individual's psyche nearly always denotes weaknesses in other aspects of their personality.

But to take moral lapses to an even greater level of depredation, we only have to examine the effects of President Bush and his reliance on mis-directed faith to account for his lies and moral bankruptcy. He may not have had any sexual encounters under the White House table (try to erase that unsavoury thought) but he did lie about Iraq and must bear the responsibility for countless deaths from the resulting war in Iraq. We can take the moral ground that Saddam Hussein had to be removed (a view that I wholeheartedly share) but the reasons for doing so were not truthful, as everyone who is informed now knows. Covert sexual acts and then lying to the nation about it may be hard to swallow (no pun intended!) but the death of many thousands based on a lie is a crime against humanity.

So we have at odds here, on the one hand a President who has a strong penchant for sex with a White House girl and another President who Bible thumps sexual morality but doesn't mind in the least if he sends hundreds of thousands to their deaths. Bill Clinton may have been sexually immoral, but he still emerges as the better human being even if his principles were weak in his personal life.

Yet, in this so-called enlightened age where anything goes, the basic principle which so many seem to be either missing or ignoring is that we do not have anyone to look up to; hopefully President Obama with his clean-cut

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