Should Hillary Have Gotten Divorced? 

My mother and I cannot discuss Hillary Clinton.  Every time the potential first woman president is on TV (which, as of late, is ALL the time), my mother sighs and says, “I don’t like her.  She shouldn’t have stayed with Bill after what happened.”  And then steam comes out of my ears and I become a fire breathing dragon.

The “what happened” to which my mother so dryly refers is that oh-so over-with scandal of (it feels like a million) years ago in which Bill Clinton, while President of the United States, had some sexual relations with an intern named Monica Lewinsky.  Everyone and their dog knows about it, and everyone and their dog is over it…except my mom.

“He embarrassed her in front of the whole country,” my mother explains.  “And he denied it!  She had to find out the truth in that terrible way,” at this point she shakes her head as if to confirm her beliefs.  “No,” she continues.  “She should have gotten a divorce.”

Now I’m sure there are women out there (hopefully only a few) who agree with this sentiment.  And I heard it somewhere recently (The View maybe?) that fans of Hillary like her because she stayed, and that those who aren’t fans of hers don’t like her because she stayed, and I can believe that because often times when you like a candidate everything they do just seems OK to you, and vice-versa.  But let me tell you why this concept bothers me.

First off, I am a firm believer that what Bill Clinton did was nobody’s business but his, Monica’s, and their respective families.  What he should have done instead of denying everything and debated the word “is,” is flatly said, “That is a private family matter which does not concern you,” but we all know that he didn’t do that because it implies guilt, and he was trying to avoid that at all costs.

Secondly, to berate Hillary for trying to stick out her marriage is really rude.  I know my mother thinks that she only stuck it out for publicity reasons, but that can only be a hunch.  No one really knows how Hillary found out (although I too doubt that she was warned beforehand) or why she stayed.  And do you know why we don’t know that stuff?  Because it’s none of our business!

Third, why was it wrong for her to stay?  Maybe they worked things out.  I mean I was only about thirteen when the scandal broke but I liked Bill Clinton.  I don’t think he was the best president ever but I think he did good things for the economy and I think he was an all around nice person, who just made a bad mistake.  And, as someone on The View pointed out the other day, sometimes the harder thing to do is stay.

And my fourth (and final) reason for hating this argument is this:  whether she should have stayed or not, whether she should have gotten a divorce, is (or at least should be) moot.  This is her campaign and her potential presidency, and I don’t think that that thirteen year old scandal should make or break anyone’s opinion of her.

And so I extend the question to you: should Hillary have gotten a divorce?  And more importantly, does it matter to her campaign now?