Got it in one Andrew.
David, interesting. Hollande lacks real political experience and his PM too, their government and the legislature will be telling. However, he is in office at a good time should Merkel lose next year, the biggest German state having turned very much against her in recent NRW elections does not bode well. Sigmar Gabriel is a totally uninspired Keynesian socialdemocrat who might need the French president if he takes office in order to give him guidance. How dangerous is Hollande, well nothing compared to how DSK may have been after in IMF fund and having too much insider knowledge, but we shall see - personally I suspect we have a great compromiser in office which under DSK would not have been the case.
When talking politics with an italian friend, and about the differences in the way a politician's private life is viewed in anglo-saxon and latin cultures, he said it's simple, if an italian politician isn't capable of having affaires, mistresses and proving he's got some go about him, what good will he be trying to run the country, polititians need to have "spunk" (please forgive the pun)
As for Anne Sinclair - I think their couple worked because they knew what each other was like at the outset, I'm not sure she's such a shrinking violet either. If she wasn't happy she would have walked long ago...
David is making a good point. No apologies for doing so, but the precedent in JFK is lifted from Wikipedia but it is pretty much as I have seen in far longer versions:
'Kennedy reportedly had affairs with a number of women, including Marilyn Monroe, Gunilla von Post, Judith Campbell, Mary Pinchot Meyer, Marlene Dietrich, and Mimi Alford. Doctors speculated that the drugs the president required for Addison's disease had the side effect of increasing his virility. The president remarked to UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, "I wonder how it is for you, Harold? If I don't have a woman for three days, I get terrible headaches." Kennedy inspired affection and loyalty from the members of his team and his supporters. According to Reeves, this included "the logistics of Kennedy's liaisons ... [which] required secrecy and devotion rare in the annals of the energetic service demanded by successful politicians." Kennedy believed that his friendly relationship with members of the press would help protect him from revelations about his sex life.'
Compare him with MacMillan who was a bookish, boring human being who knew very little of 'real life' yet lead the country. But then Profumo did a DSK and brought him down, giving us Alec Douglas-Home, the most ineffectual PM in history, then Wilson who I remember was heralded in as equally boring but was probably the most intelligent PM and had a really very conventional private life but with and interesting wife. It looks like you give a politician a bit of verve and they are worth a go. After all we have seen Nicolas and Silvio up to antics whilst in office, have we not? On the Anglo-Saxon point, Lloyd-George would not get a look in now and I think Quentin Hogg/Hailsham might be the norm. Cameron and his ilk, indeed most senior LibDems and Labour even, are more or less sons of the manse - as are our present Labour leader and his pretender brother by virtue of their father's name and place in politics. Yes David 'Stones, glasshouses?' Good question, but what have we really got to lose by trying? The test of time has often been that the 'priapitic' politician also has a better, more creative mind than others and is that not a quality required for leadership and decision making? I am not pronouncing a view, simply developing on David's great sense.
I do not think that Francoise Holland is a "damp squib", but a dangerous little man. Who knows what we will face with him in charge.
Interesting point of view David. Stones, glass houses, well yes that could be levelled at Hollande to some extent, but leaving your partner for another is hardly the same as forcing people into sex acts and organising prostitution rings - in my opinion.
I take your point that you are in no way making apologies for his actions and perhaps you are correct, someone with the intellect of DSK, a bit more gung ho than Hollande and with a modicum of dignity, now that would make a politician worth voting for.
As concerns Anne Sinclair, I assume they must be in a fairly liberal relationship, otherwise how could she put up with it ?
Anglo Saxon politics often tends to the encouragement of blander persons who tick all the so called right boxes. Politicians of the past of the Lloyd-George variety would never get as far as they used to. Instead we ended up with the totally ineffectual son of the manse, and his war mongering money chasing lap dog predecessor. Lots of good people don't go into politics as they fear the attentions of the media. Are we better off with the fumbling bland? Whilst being no apologist for DSK I am not so sure. Stones, glasshouses?
The cartoon says a lot on a lot of different levels.
James - Anne Sinclair does not have a much better reputation in international tittle-tattle circles, she is very much Paul Rosenberg's heir given the creative circles she moves in as well as her high level journalism getting her in some lofty places. Somebody I used to know at Science Po says that during his professorial time DSK had his tongue hanging out for various women there, so it is something he has probably always been doing. However, he is getting stupid and clumsy if he just has a quick shag with the nearest available woman, something beneath his station as far as his peers would judge as well. One problem may well be substantiating a rape case and entrapment easier given Nafissatou Diallo's actions since, but the sex ring in Lille maybe. He deserves something for what he has done but I guess we might expect he is rich enough to pay the calibre of lawyers who will get him a rap over the knuckle and a fine of some kind. Sad, what kind of example does he make to the rest of the population?
is it a curious coincidence that theres only comments from guys so far?
There s no doubt that DSK is an amazing economist/financial brain but unfortunately there is also no doubt that when that brain isnt working the one lower down knows no limits!
From a womans view point I can only say that Anne Sinclair must find a benefit somewhere in their relationship being like this as she has to be aware of his "foibles". She was a powerful journalist in her own right until she was "forced" to resign when DSK last projected a presidential candidature (the year Jospin shot himself in the foot) when he was pushed out of the running over another scandal which had him leaving Bercy (minister finance) and turning up later at the FMI.
He'd been in the States long enough to know that the Americans dont push sex scandals under the rug as can happen in Europe so his crazy behaviour at the Sofitel was, if he was guilty as accused, definately political suicide.
Not sure that we'll see another financial brain of his stature again but I agree we didnt need a Berlosconi look alike as president ( but did we need the marshmallow man? that remains to be seen)
Yes politically rather a shame for France, I think he would have been very good but the man is a sex pest and everyone knows it. He even predicted to a journalist years ago that his downfall would be his "private life". OK while he stayed in France and his antics were hushed up all the time - Mitterrand managed to keep his affaires and Mazarine secret right up until his death so why not dsk... Because he went too far in everybody's estimations to such an extent that it had to stop!
Ironic, but he was a superb IMF boss. However, in some of the UN circles I know there is far too much rumour for it to be without substance. Some of it was set up, sure, his enemies are legion. Unfortunately his way of being is far too much like Berlusconi and such power-focussed 'leaders' who imagine that from up there they get away with it. Kennedy was saved by an assassin's bullet, perhaps not the first of his kind but the first to have media pursueing him for his indiscretions. However, from then until the present a mould has been cast and there are too many DSKs on his track and the others enriching themselves on the other. Perhaps a Hollande or the usually quite bland Scandinavian heads of state have their virtue after all.
He has a long history of such immoral acts dating back to the French journalist and her mother. He was a guy who just thought he could pressure any woman into sex even if it took physical pressure which, of course, is rape. It's really too bad the maid in NYC did her case in by lying to the investigators and then communicating with a known criminal afterwards about the case. That attack was no set up. If it were, they would have used someone far more attractive that that poor woman. His obsession with sex is worldwide in Paris, NYC, Washington DC where he pressured his subordinate into an affair and in Lille. I hope they find this man guilty of one of these crimes so he gets some punishment. Why his wife stays by him is mind boggling. I thought she was intelligent but now I think just the opposite.
Yes Roger, I think a lot of people thought like that too. The affair at the Soffitel looked totally and utterly like a set up and that he went for for it. Not very shrewd for a politician.
But it turns out that this kind of thing is just the tip of the iceberg. We need to wait and see how the Carlton affair evolves and perhaps there are others.
He seemed to be doing a pretty good job of running the IMF to all intents and purposes. I just wonder where the abuse of power would have gone, had he got his hands on France.
My initial thought, when it all started, was that he was guilty of getting caught.