The Psychological Assessment of Political Leadersshe had become his gatekeeper, especially after his 1980 reelection defeat, and
she increasingly took on the role in the Clinton family of breadwinner.
- The issue of Clinton's extramarital relationships came up several times
during the presidential campaign and again after Clinton was in office. Extra-
marital relationships occur for many reasons and take many forms. The issues
involved in such behavior ordinarily go well beyond the simple question of
whether or not a president or candidate had a sexual relationship outside of his
marriage (Renshon 1996a).
Did Clinton have extramarital relationships? A substantial body of evidence
suggests he did. Betsey Wright, long-time aide to Clinton over several decades,
recalls having felt in 1988, before Clinton was set to announce his plan to run
that year for president, that
the time had come to get past what she considered his self-denying ten-
dencies and face the issue squarely. For years, she told friends later, she had
been covering up for him. She was convinced that some state troopers were
soliciting women for him.... "Okay," she said to him... then started list-
ing the names of women he had allegedly had affairs with and the places
where they were said to have occurred. "Now, I want you to tell me the
truth about each one." She went over the list twice with Clinton, accord-
ing to her later account, the second time trying to determine whether any
of the women might tell their stories to the press. At the end... she sug-
gested that he should not get into the race, (quoted in Maraniss 1995,
440-41)
Roger Starr, managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat for most of Clinton's
tenure as governor, recalls: "We were talking about the Gary Hart factor in pol-
itics, and I asked him something to the effect of'well, you haven't done anything
like that, have you?' You know (I was) expecting a negative answer, be it a lie or
the truth. And he said, 'Yes'" (Oakley 1994, 150).
Woodward (1994, 22) reports a similar discussion between Clinton and
another friend in 1987 when Clinton decided against running for president. He
quotes Clinton as asking his friend if he knew why Clinton had chosen not to
run. The friend guessed it had something to do with the infidelity issue that
forced Gary Hart to withdraw from the race. In response Clinton agreed and
acknowledged he had strayed. And, of course on Sixty Minutes Clinton admitted
in response to a question about his marital fidelity that he had "caused pain in his
marriage" (Brook 1996).
Assuming there is sufficient evidence to make this case, what does it reveal?
In the case of Clinton not much more than we could learn by examining his
fidelity in other areas. For that reason, I do not deal at any length on these mat-
ters. Whatever useful information they might reveal about Clinton is more than
adequately found in behavior that is more publicly accessible.