ANSWERS: 13
  • Because the religious right around here are so sexually repressed that anyone even cranking one out, is a sin. Europe is ahead of the US in rejecting the stupidity of organized religion.
  • Because we just do not care. We do not take our home to work and we do not take our work with us when we go home. They do not just say 'keep your private life and work seperated', therefore we do not judge for example a president that in his private time has an affair. That is totally his decision and his life. If it does not affect his job, we have nothing to complain about.
  • To give a different take to the others (I agree with most of them too), America is obsessed with celebrity to a degree that Europe is not, that is also one of the reasons why. America treats its politicians differently. They are in many ways regarded as celebrities rather than private people holding office. This does not happen to the same extent in Europe. Here politicans are politicans, their private lives and wives are not front page news. We aren't interested in what their kids are up to, what they are going to name their dog - we don't want to consume every aspect of their daily lives as if they are hollywood actors. So when a politican has an affair, we don't care anywhere as near as much as the US - because we don't see them as a celebrity icon, or tabloid figure. We see them as people doing a job.
    • Victorine
      You are simply incorrect. Of course Europeans are obsessed with celebrity. Haven't you looked at the European tabloids and celebrity gossip magazines? They are FAR worse than anything we have in the US, and their paparazzi are far less regulated than in the US, too. When I lived in Italy and France, and when I spent months at a time in the UK, I was stunned by the behavior of the media. Please, don't try to pretend that you don't care about private lives and wives and pets. That is patently untrue, as any perusal of European media will prove.
  • The Europeans who came to the New World to settle had some definite ideas about sex and sexuality. Read the Scarlet Letter. The legacy lingers on even now. There is a definite thread of sexual suppression and even repression in the US. But there is something else. The Europeans generally recognize that politicians are corrupt and dishonest-thats why they got into politics. Americans are more naive, and still want to imagine that politicians should be noble in a sort of George Washington, Abe Lincoln sort of way. So there is always this indignation, often contrived, when American politicians turn out to have feet of clay.
  • Because in the US often the affairs are committed by hypocritic politicians that loudly defend and/or enforce "family values".
  • In one word: religion. The European countries and much of the rest of the world (outside the ME) are secular. As a consequence, they're not trying to push their pseudo-morals based on religion down anybody's throats. If you pay close attention, here in the US, the ones that are guilty of all kinds of those inmoralities are the most ardent advocates of religion. As a consequence, isn't it fitting that a big deal be made out of their wrongful behavior since, in addition to the act, they're also guilty of hypocrisy? In a way, it's a good thing because they're being to the world in their true light and not the one they want others to see
  • It's what you get with corporate owned media. It's an easy story and one that sells. Pictures of pretty women and upset wives and embarrassed politicians makes for a good soap opera. Getting to the real news and telling people what is actually important is expensive and complicated and not in line with the Ken and Barbie newscasts that permeate the networks.
  • To keep people distracted from issues they care about. Like healthcare, foreign policy, etc.
  • Good point! Because we hold our officials to different standards than other countries. + 5
  • It's partly the influence of the religious right and also partly the fact that because of them, politicians play the holier-than-thou role to the hilt to get elected. All of us like to titter when someone full of Comstockery proves to be a bigger sinner than those he had been condemning.
  • I agree. It does get out of proportion. The infidelity has always been disgusting. However it should not effect any politician doing his/her job. With Clinton's affair with Monica I didn't care very much about it. All I care was his performing his Presidential duties. Let Hillary worry about his infidelity. I agree with one of the answerer - the media pulls it out to the public and magnifies it to distract from the important issues that can not be resolved.
  • Republican politicians believe that winning is everything and damn the fall-out for America.
  • Having lived abroad, I can tell you that extramarital affairs are more of a big deal in many foreign countries than you think. They really are NOT accepted, and the media go wild when the information is uncovered. The difference is actually that in some countries, they are simply more discreet, so that the media and the public don't find out much about such affairs. Keeping a mistress on the side may be considered acceptable AS LONG AS you don't embarrass your wife publicly. If you do, the gloves will come off. By the way, a famous French murder case involved a politician whose wife shot him when she discovered he was having an affair. The jury acquitted her. They felt that his behavior had been sufficient provocation.

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