Source: Straits Times, 01 July 2009
DISGRACED South Carolina governor Mark Sanford must wish he was Italian.
For, while Mr Sanford’s political life hangs by a thread because he was caught visiting a mistress while claiming to be on a mountaineering holiday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has just shrugged off accusations of involvement in orgies with prostitutes without a dent to his popularity.
Why do American voters usually punish politicians caught with their trousers around their ankles, while their European counterparts seldom care? No conclusive answer can be provided of course, but there is no shortage of likely explanations.