Wednesday night, three Northwestern students sat at dinner in 1835 Hinman dining hall discussing the political future of Sen. John McCain.
Andrew Mark, Jonathan Hsiao and Gabriel Horta, all Weinberg freshmen, debated the recent accusations of an affair that were leveled at the presidential hopeful.
The three grew up during the Clinton administration, where it was common knowledge the leader of the free world had an extramarital affair, and Lewinsky was a bigger name than Arafat. Now McCain, the leading Republican candidate for president, is facing the same charge.
Articles in The New York Times and The Washington Post questioned McCain’s association with a lobbyist, saying McCain may have used his political clout to aid the lobbyist or may have even had an affair with her. McCain has since denied these accusations.
“I’m sure conservatives would be angry about it,” Horta said. “I personally don’t care about politicians’ personal lives as long as they can get the job done.”
His friend Mark disagreed.
“Personal life is a good judge of character, which will help dictate how they’ll react to politics,” he said.
Horta said that at the very least, the allegations provide good “ammunition” for Democratic presidential candidates to use against the Arizona senator.
Hsiao disagreed and said the Democrats could not accuse McCain of anything until the allegations were proven. Otherwise the candidates would look like liars, he said.
Hsiao added, however, that the allegations of an affair still might hurt McCain’s campaign.
“Look at Giuliani,” he said.
Former New York mayor and Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani came under fire by the American news media for his divorces and allegations of affairs.
Larry Stuelpnagel, a journalism professor who specializes in media coverage of politics, said the accusations don’t mean the end of McCain’s campaign.
“This is the kind of thing that by itself won’t derail him,” Stuelpnagel said. “But there have been other issues that have been raised about his relations with lobbyists.”
Stuelpnagel said questions have been raised about how The Times acquired its sources about the scandal. He said even if the accusation proves to be false, it still has consequences for the future of McCain’s campaign.
“What this will do is make the press pay even closer attention to his relations with lobbyists,” Stuelpnagel said. “Who knows what comes out as you keep digging?”
Jenn Dondiego, a Weinberg sophomore, said she is a supporter of McCain, and that an affair would be out of character for the senator.
“I don’t think ultimately it will affect people,” she said. “I think people will have a hard time believing it because he’s such a stand-up guy.”
Dondiego said such political tactics can be expected during a campaign.
“This is really kind of classic mudslinging,” she said.
