which can't immediately be disproven by countless counterexamples - on the whole it's a conservative country, but perhaps exactly for that reason, you also have tons of people who are aggressively progressive or liberal in a way that might surprise Europeans. Many devoutly religious people - but also again countless surprisingly outspoken atheists. Etc.

But still, it's on average a more conservative, more religious and indeed more uptight country than many places in Europe. Yes, Clinton got away with it, but if I'm correct on the details (which I might not be, I was ten at the time...), he avoided impeachment by only a hair - admittedly for lying under oath more than for the sex scandal itself, but then why did he have to testify under oath about it in the first place?
quote id="282549">It is true we are not France but look how popular Clinton is even though not only got one of the office interns to blow him and then went on natioanl tv looked straight in the camera and lied. Even bible belt senator David Vetter got away with it. Woody Allen married his stepdaughter and people still love him.
I don't know how many people love Woody Allen... surely he grates on most anyone's nerves.

I don't know that the difference is about how dimly one views infidelity, necessarily. More perhaps a matter of how much one links one's view of a politician's personal affairs to one's view of his political actions or abilities. Italy is an extreme case because Berlusconi is not only a scumbag as a person, but he blatantly and consistently abused his political power to facilitate or cover up his dubious personal actions. But on the whole, I do think it's a good thing that European voters are more inclined to not care much about a given politician's perhaps dubious personal life - as long as he's a good leader. If John Edwards wants to cheat on his wife, that certainly does him no credit as a person, but the effect on his political performance is likely to be minimal (or perhaps even beneficial, who knows).