William Jefferson Clintonwit, he is not John Kennedy. If the absence of creative language
reflects a paucity of creative thinking, Clinton's effectiveness as a
leader may lie in his ability to transmit other people's ideas. Clinton's
main problem as a candidate and elected official has been the so-called
character issue. He has been unable to put to rest allegations that he
was a draft dodger and a womanizer. It is not so much that the presi-
dent may have been guilty of the accusations that have hurt him but
rather his manner of responding to them, a combination of denial,
admission, and foul crying. Listeners come away doubting Clinton's
integrity, a problem that continues to plague him.
Other leaders have dealt more successfully with similar attacks.
Franklin Roosevelt was able to ignore personal attacks or to ridicule
them, as in the famous "Fala" speech. Perhaps the most successful
strategy of responding to personal attacks has been developed by for-
mer governor of Louisiana Edwin Edwards. He has handled charges
of gambling and womanizing by denying nothing, admitting noth-
ing, and changing the subject as quickly as possible. When ques-
tioned by reporters about gambling and relationships with women
during the campaign against David Duke, Edwards stated that, yes,
he had had problems, everybody knew about them, and now it was
time to go about solving Louisiana's problems. Edwards never stated
exactly what wrongdoing he was guilty of. He did not stir the pub-
lic's curiosity. By denying nothing, he did not run the risk of being
accused of lying, should ethical issues arise in the future.
Let us look now at how Clinton attempted to deal with allegations
of unethical behavior. How were his responses to reporters' questions
reflected in his grammatical choices? The following excerpt from a
reply to a question by David Frost about Clinton's avoidance of mil-
itary service shows exaggerated denial (negatives and adverbial
intensifiers) and a tendency to assume the role of victim (frequent use
of the personal pronoun me).
I didn't willfully fail to disclose anything in the draft thing. I
really didn't. I've since that time—and I should have done this
I guess before I started running for president, but because no
one had ever criticized me, including the authorities—/ didn't.
I have written to everybody in the world who might have
any of these records. I said, "Send me the records. Let me get all
the facts. Please let me see." (original emphasis)