A new PEW study reveals that a majority of Americans believe elected officials get caught in tawdry sex scandals more often, not because they have lower moral standards, but because they are under greater scrutiny.
Here are a few who have fallen from grace.
What do you think? Are politicians a mirror of our own morality?
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Us Girls..Our Views 
No, I don’t believe they mirror the morality of the majority of people. Are there married people who have affairs… yes, there most certainly are. However, I believe that the majority of married men and women are faithful to their spouses!
I just think those that do get involved have a tendency to believe they won’t get caught so why not go for it! That seems to be the case for most people in politics when it comes to almost anything. Lying, cheating, stealing and all that other nasty stuff . Most of us wouldn’t dream of breaking the trust we have with our spouse. We also wouldn’t lie, cheat, steal, etc. because we’d have a problem living with ourselves.
I think it’s probably a combination of factors.
For one thing, to get elected in a competitive race, at a minimum you have to be a panderer, if not an outright liar. You give a speech on Tuesday to a business group and present your pro-business agenda, and on Wednesday you tell a bleeding-heart group how you’re going to rein in and punish big business. On Thursday you tell the unions you’ll fight imports, on Friday you tell the importers you’re all about free trade. You take money from whoever will give it to you, knowing full well they will expect favors in return, should you get elected. You’ll cross that bridge when you come to it, you tell yourself. The ends justify the means, bla bla bla. Like Clinton said (paraphrased), “I had to lie about Monica or I would not have been reelected. What choice did I have?” Telling the plain truth simply isn’t an option to a die-hard politician. Is it any wonder other moral standards are also lowered?
I do think that politicians probably get caught more easily than “regular joes” who break their vows. But, notice that when these things are brought to light, we usually find a long-term pattern of womanizing, infidelity, and misuse of public office. Followed by intimidation (to keep the mistresses quiet), foolish lying, and often an apparent lack of guilt. Usually the guilty politician appears to care little for his wife’s feelings, or those of the other women involved. You generally don’t see this kind of pattern with the “regular joes” who succombed to temptation.
I do think there are lots of faithful politicians. But yeah, I think the statistics are against them. Let’s just say I would not date a [single] politician.
To me, “they do it because they’re under greater scrutiny” is just another excuse. Like the whole “I’ll go to rehab and make everything better” nonsense. For most, rehab does nothing for them, because they haven’t hit bottom, and they don’t really believe that THEY have a problem. (stand back, you’ve hit a nerve here) They believe that the rest of the world has a problem. The only one (famous person) that I’ve seen that rehab may have worked for is Tiger Woods. Maybe. Oh, and Robert Whats-his-name… Iron Man. He seems to have turned himself around after how many trips to rehab? But they’re famous people and not politicians.
In the political arena, I think it’s very similar to the movie star arena. You are dealing with personalities that are so incredibly narcissistic – by the time they reach the heights that they’re at (senator, governor, president) they’re so surrounded by Yes-Men, that they believe they are invincible. Nobody can touch them, and the rules for everyone else simply don’t apply to them. Look at Obama – he’s not cheating on his wife (that we know of), but he’s sure doing plenty of other crap. Vacations every month, golfing every weekend, parties galore, all while regular Americans are scraping pennies together to fill the tanks of the cars they’re thinking of getting rid of because they can’t afford to drive them anymore. But he (Obama) thinks that he absolutely deserves every minute of every vacation, every golf game, every party that he attends. He’s THAT important, he’s THAT good, he’s THAT beloved, nobody is going to complain. And when people do, those around him assure him that it’s just the evil Right-Wing, Ultra-Conservative, Bible-Banging, whatever the word of the day, Rush Limbaughs of the world who are trying to bring him down.
So apply that to every politician who has gotten caught with his pants down. Listen to their “apology”… “I’m sorry if you misinterpreted my actions”. They rarely, if ever, take responsibility for what they do – they turn it around on those accusing. It’s always somebody else’s fault. The woman saved the dress, the account was hacked, some other women had it in for him, whatever. Until they lose everything, they’re not going to learn, and it’s not going to stop.
And we’re going to keep electing them, because they’re silver tongued bastards, the lot of them. They know how to say what we want to hear, even if we try to hear the truth through their lies.
No. I don’t think politicians mirror us “regular” folk. I believe you really have to have a certain personality for this and I really do believe that most of these people really do think they’re different from the rest of us. I don’t know if they talk themselves into it or not. But honestly, I don’t think Joe the plumber behaves like this.
I for the most part think stuff like this has gone on since the beginning of time. A part of me does think there are camera’s everywhere now and if you watch people long enough, you’re bound to find something. I mean, if someone had a camera in here, I’m sure someone would come rushing in with a white coat and straight jacket. I talk to myself all day long and I’ve been caught by other people. I dance and talk and sing……..but I do know those things are innocent. These people are hurting so many others
Like’s been mentioned above, I do think most of these people think they’re entitled to act like this. Maybe in their world it’s “normal” but like Phyllis said, I think the majority of people are faithful in their marriage. You just never hear about those people. Some of these sharp tongued people, how can we ever trust them again? Some of the stuff is just plain sick. Can you just imagine the embarrassment? On one hand I admire the “stand by your man” women but I’m just not sure I could get over such a public ordeal.