BY PATRICK CROWLEY and JOHN JOHNSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It's a question most Americans likely have pondered and discussed, debated or argued about in the last few days: For the good of the country, should Bill Clinton stay or go?
The Enquirer selected a dozen readers from among more than 1,400 who responded to the newspaper's invitation to speak out to the president. The panelists were selected to represent a variety of viewpoints.
Opinion polls give the statistics on the "yes or no," but when the group gathered around a table to share their views it became clear the answers to this very public question were rooted in each individual's personal experiences, convictions and morals. "I'm embarrassed by him. I would not want him to spend time alone with my 21-year-old daughter or my wife," said Jerry Hawk, 50, of Green Township. Mr. Hawk sells potato chips for a living and speaks with pride of being a husband and father. He feels the president has shamed and hurt the nation and shouldn't stay in office.
Granted, the president's sexual behavior was "scandalous," responded Northside artist Glenn "Rocky" Woods, 51, who voted for Mr. Clinton. "But I don't see how that affects running a country." The president, he said, has been "set up" by those who would like to see him out of power.
Mr. Woods told the group he understood those who want Mr. Clinton to resign or be impeached. Yet he sees this as a private affair between Mr. Clinton and his family.
"I still have a serious, core problem about legislating morality," he said.
"There is an issue of two consenting adults here," Mr. Woods said. "I'm not in any way justifying that, but I don't think it should be splattered all over the newspaper the way it is."
Some panelists said the world is laughing at Mr. Clinton.
But Robert Jones disagreed. "The world is not laughing at Bill Clinton, the world is laughing at America," said Mr. Jones, 55, who works for a video conferencing firm in Mount Healthy. "This man has been investigated longer than any president . . . and all we can talk about now is a 21-year-old woman performed oral sex in a back room of the Oval Office."
"It's not about oral sex," countered Mr. Hawk. "It's about lying under oath. It's about law. Bill Clinton said, "I am the moral president. I will make that my issue.' "
"Not just about sex'
And it's not just about the sex, it's the lies about it, said Miami University student Jennifer Weber, 19, a political science major and registered Republican.
"He got on the television screen and lied straight to your face. He has no respect for the American people as individuals as far as I'm concerned. That is like lying to your mother or friend . . . and the honorable thing would be for him to resign."
She and others expressed some of the moral outrage and indignation many Americans have felt since reading the tawdry excerpts of the Starr report and the sexual encounters between the president and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
"Bill Clinton is the one who cheated on his wife . . . with a woman who is barely older than his own daughter," Ms. Weber said. "That is disgusting."
That sense of outrage was echoed by others on the panel.
"I know that my president, in his office, did acts that not one of us could do in our office and remain in our jobs," said Winnie House, a 44-year-old West Chester resident who is trained as a paralegal but stayed home to raise her children. Although impeachment worries her, she thinks Mr. Clinton should suffer consequences for his actions.
"He is a reflection of our own moral decadence," said Mary Jane Abraham, a 65-year-old Anderson Township retiree.
While all the panelists agreed Mr. Clinton's actions were deplorable, some felt that the loss of his office was too high a price for him, and the country, to pay.
"I can't see that hanging Clinton at this point would pull this country . . . out of the complete moral mess we've let ourselves slide into," said June Francis, 67, a homemaker from Norwood who voted for Mr. Clinton. "We're not going to do our children or children's children any good by putting the blame for our moral weakness on one man."
But, "In taking that oath (of office)," countered Jason Holland, a 19-year-old Miami University student, "he's going to be held to a higher standard. He has to be."
Seeking redemption
Ann Richburg of Forest Park, a retired biology teacher who voted for Mr. Clinton, said she still supports Mr. Clinton's policies, but is repulsed by what she now knows about the man. "When he said he didn't have sex with that woman, I believed him," but when she read details of the affair she was sick to her stomach.
If he resigned, Mr. Clinton would be taking the first step toward redeeming his character and healing the nation, said Don Riggins, 55, a telecommunications manager from West Chester.
"If he had told the truth back in '92 (when he first was questioned about extramarital affairs), we probably wouldn't be here now." No one in the group brought the same perspective to the discussion as Mr. Jones, the former mayor of Williamstown, Ky., a small Grant County town about 45 miles south of Cincinnati on Interstate 75. Last year Mr. Jones was impeached and removed from the mayor's office and ultimately pleaded guilty to 12 misdemeanor counts of official misconduct and one misdemeanor count of perjury.
"Listen, I have been through the judicial system," Mr. Jones said, looking around the room at the members of the panel. "If you honestly believe that everybody that lies under oath is charged, then you're living in Disneyland," Mr. Jones said.
Mrs. Francis put some of the blame on Monica Lewinsky, who she referred to as a "little slut."
"I think the American people . . . kind of hate to open the door of impeachment," she said. "Because once you open that door, it's like for what reason and who is going to be sucked through that door in years to come."
"Let's do it the American way," Mrs. Francis told the panel. "Let's just slither and slide. Let's do the best we can. Let's don't impeach the president under all this smut."
"There's no way but up'
Mr. Clinton can still function as a leader -- and a role model for youth -- if he embraces the truth, said Darin Lewis, a 30-year-old youth director from Pleasant Ridge. "It's a very positive message to send, as a leader, to say, "I blew it. And I'm making a decision to embrace the truth and do the right thing.' "
Indeed, the president is better able to lead the country now than ever, said Charlotte Hunter, a 51-year-old quilter and poet from Forest Park, "because he's had to come clean. When you hit rock bottom, there's no way but up."
Mr. Hawk vehemently disagreed that Mr. Clinton should be allowed to remain in office.
"You cannot allow yourself as the president of the United States to succumb to sheer physical pleasure," he argued. "Nine months after Paula Jones accused him of what he did, he was in the hall with Monica Lewinsky.
"What does that say for a man who is president of the United States? . . . My opinion is he doesn't belong where he is. He should get out of there."
After hearing his fellow panelists, Mr. Woods, the artist who told the group the president's behavior was a private family matter, modified his view somewhat.
"We've all been hurt," he said. "There's pain here. You can feel it, hear it in voices. All of us are stung, one way or another."
He said he'd come to believe that the president has to be held accountable for his lies.
"This is so horrible in its ramifications, I wonder how we'll pull ourselves up by the bootstraps," Mr. Woods said.
"If he's impeached, the country will make it," Mr. Hawk said. "This country is bigger than Bill Clinton.
"We are big enough to take care of our problems . . . because of you and you and you . . . " He pointed to the other people at the table and, figuratively, at Americans everywhere.
