C.L.
Beyond facetiousness Clinton is dangerous. Read on:
What makes Clinton tick?
It is frequently stated that Clinton is a sex addict. An addict has a craving which controls him. Excessive sex can never be classified as an addiction. It can, however, be understood as a compulsion. Still, compulsive sexual behavior does not characterize Clinton.
Rather, he uses sex as a vehicle for the expression of a critical and apparently long standing personality trait . In a word, Clinton needs to act dangerously, to walk the edge of a precipice and prove to himself ( not really to the world) that he will not fall off. It is the demonstration to himself that he is not vulnerable, even invulnerable; that he is total master of his own fate.
The perpetuation of this self fantasy requires frequent reinforcement. Most of the time he achieves this reinforcement by his manipulation of people around himself; by his Teflon escapes from disaster as disasters befall those with whom he surrounds himself; by his frequent forays beyond the beltway to feed off the adulation and love of the populace. 3I feel your painý translated is: 3Love me because I care about you.ý
Clinton is a highly intelligent man but in personality and emotional development he is an adolescent. The tawdry affair with Monica is pure adolescent gush. No mature man engages in a sexual affair by telephone, by incomplete oral sex, and without coitus.
There is a triviality and superficiality about this man who can absorb factual material readily but who lacks any semblance of wisdom. Solomon he is not.
His inadequacy as a foreign policy thinker, (in sharp contrast with Nixon) is also linked with his personality deficiency. He can be a petulant angry man when crossed but his need to be loved cancels his capacity to be forceful and aggressive in foreign matters when necessary. He develops domestic programs to win public adulation but diminishes the country1s military capacity. The military offers him no pay off in terms of his needs.
He is known to close associates as a chameleon. In the words of an intimate 3he is whatever you want him to beý His apparent charm is largely based on his conciliatory manner in all personal dealings. It is difficult or even impossible for him to say 3noý to anyone. This again is to please and be loved. To not be loved is to be vulnerable and when he is confronted, as Donna Shalala did at the recent Cabinet meeting, he responds with excessive anger. Criticism means vulnerability and this he cannot tolerate.
Clinton, because of his fantasy, cannot be an honest man. His effort is always self-serving; his need for approval too burdensome and unrelenting. His care about others and wish to do good lacks balance. It is not discriminating and objective. It is always in the service of his pressing personal need. He is a total narcissist and very probably without any real awareness of himself.
Clinton is in serious personal danger because if, as is likely, he is forced to leave office one way or another, or if his approval ratings flag even if he remains in office, his modus operandus will fail and he could suffer a crippling depression.
More important, of course, is what he means for the country. In our times with increasing terrorism threatening, with North Korea blackmailing the U.S.; with Saddam emboldened by our weakkneed response; with his refusal to recognize the need for a more active military defense and posture in a dangerous world, Clinton is not the man for the job. When dealing with other nations firmness, resistance, differences and if necessary confrontations, are called for. Clinton is not there. Such behavior is contrary to his most profound character trait.
It is more than clear from reading the Starr report that this man has been pushed around and made into a wimp by a 22 year old empty-headed and manipulative adolescent girl with the same level of maturity as he himself. How can such a man deal with Saddam? |
