Politics! Sex! Together in harmony at last

Tonight I was at the library way too late reading an article about what an ass Bush was to Germany before the Iraq War and I got all Cindy Sheehan angry. Bush even went so far as to call Gerhard Schroder a "liar" because he had alluded to the President that he had observed the U.S. making a case for war but then refused to support it. Two things stuck out at me about this incident: one, Bush is so delusional, crazy, arrogant, reckless and rude that it never quite goes without saying, and two, Schroder is a ladies man. Okay, maybe that isn't something I gleaned from this incident, but it is something I've learned about him. He is currently on his fourth wife (German nickname: Audi, because its symbol is four rings), and when he was at LSE last week speaking there was an attractive young woman sitting on the stage with him when he was introduced and when he took the podium he said, "Don't worry, that's not my fifth wife." Laughter ensued.

So I was talking to EJ tonight (only we provoke these kind of discussions with each other), and I asked aloud, "Why do womanizers make such good leaders?" FDR, JFK, Clinton, Schroder, and Mitterrand in France, all of these men were good leaders as well as well-known womanizers or cheaters. Nixon? Loyal as a puppy dog. Bush I? Yeah, he likes Babs, but he also likes to grab Teri Hatcher's ass. It's kind of the parallel of his so-so administration. Bush II? Loves librarian Laura and then goes out and screws the U.S. and the entire international order.

I'm calling it the Womanizer theory of International Relations. Think about it: men who like and court the attention of women (especially while married) not only have to balance disparate and/or conflicting interests, but they have to glad-hand and be flexible in their plans. Loyal, committed married men (code: stubborn) are rarely in conflict with their significant others and therefore don't have to work around any schedule but their own.

So what about Tony Blair? Where does he fall? Well, he loves Cherie but is a flirt, so he's still got a lot of public love. Maybe Cherie put the clamp on that flirty behavior and poof! He feels the need to cow-tow to Bush on Iraq.

It's only a theory...


PS--Women are naturally better and juggling and accommodating disparate interests, maybe this will finally prove that they are better leaders after all.