Reaction: World of Laughter, World of Tears

Amid a global chorus of snickering and sympathy, derision and dismay, much of the world has by now watched or read President Clinton’s confession of an extramarital relationship, a spectacle that amazed millions but left some wondering whether the U.S. leader’s international clout will be compromised beyond repair.

Many of the world’s press and pundits judged Clinton harshly Tuesday. “The Last Caper of the Great Liar,” said the headline on a front-page editorial in Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper, while rival Il Giornale mocked, “Clinton: I Made Love, but Only a Little Bit.”

BBC’s “Newsnight” program showed Clinton growing a Pinocchio nose along with these words of introduction: “So, he’s been lying through his teeth all along,” and an editorial in the British tabloid the Sun judged Clinton to be “a serial philanderer.” A cartoon in Israel’s largest daily, Yediot Aharonot, showed the Statue of Liberty staring in distress at a large blot on her dress, a reference to a dress belonging to former intern Monica S. Lewinsky that allegedly had been stained by a sexual encounter.

‘What Is the Fuss All About?’

Although not a few observers saw the scandal as evidence of America’s political or moral decline, more wondered whether the U.S. had gone mad in subordinating its vital national interests--and its international political influence--to a puritanical and provincial obsession with sexual morality.

“What is the fuss all about?” asked an 80-year-old retired Israeli baker who gave his name as Yitzhak. “Our King David did far worse things.”

In Warsaw, retired technician Tadeusz Bielinski said: “Nowhere in the world do they prosecute presidents for such things.” Declaring that “America is ruling the world . . . [and] it’s ruling well,” he insisted that Poles would continue to support the two key figures defending freedom in the world: Clinton and the pope.

Political scientist Franco Pavoncello, with Rome’s John Cabot University, explained: “Rather than ridicule or disgust over Clinton’s behavior, there’s a fascination in Italy with a political system that generates so much controversy over such seemingly irrelevant acts. There’s an amazement at how overblown this issue has become in America.”

Japanese novelist and social critic Kenji Sato agreed. “Americans are obsessed with monarchies since they don’t have one, so they expect the president to be the embodiment of ideal family life,” Sato said. “I’d rather have a leader who is politically able but somewhat tinged by scandal than one who is a moral paragon but politically incompetent.”

Eighteen-year-old Hila Perlmutter, an Israeli store clerk, branded the “revelation” that a powerful older man had dallied with an eager young woman “the most uninteresting thing in the world.”

“OK, so he did something wrong,” she said, “but he is one of the best presidents the United States ever had.”

Many Media Outlets Could Not Resist

Media in China, Poland and Colombia devoted more attention to compelling local stories--epic floods, the erecting of crosses outside Auschwitz and the guerrilla kidnapping of seven mayors, respectively--than to the Clinton confession.

But for sheer entertainment value, most of the world could not resist following the American sex saga.

In general, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton seemed to elicit more sympathy than did her husband--even winning praise from Singapore’s state television for “standing by her man.”

International observers were divided over whether this grand American soap opera, playing to a titillated global audience and starring the Leader of the Free World, would damage the president’s ability to conduct foreign policy or exercise leadership in a troubled world.

“America’s prestige has been damaged,” declared Tetsuya Tsukamoto, a professor at Japan’s Defense University, questioning whether an “arrogant” America has the moral credentials to lecture Japan about reforming its financial system. “Recently, Japan has been bashed by the whole world, but it seems the image being beamed to the world now is of an America that is slackening,” Tsukamoto said.

“President Clinton has shown miserable judgment, and there is no guarantee that this lack of judgment won’t show up elsewhere when the issues are more significant,” said University of Toronto philosophy professor James Graff. “This scandal has weakened the moral authority of the presidency--not that there was much left. The American political system is hopelessly corrupt, and what you get are people like Clinton.”

But others argued that, barring impeachment proceedings against Clinton, the effect on U.S. foreign influence will be nil.

Some overseas observers fretted that a drop in Clinton’s poll ratings could make him more prone to dangerous international adventurism--increasing the temptation to bomb Iraq or bash Japan, for example.

More widespread was the lament that the U.S. president has been distracted by a damaging scandal about sex and lies when he should have been focusing on terrorism in Northern Ireland, the economic crisis in Russia, the hunt for the bombers of two U.S. embassies in Africa, a defiant Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and a host of other pressing problems.

“The page-turning, enthralling pornographic soap opera whose heroine is Monica Lewinsky has obscured an important fact: The president of the United States, the defender of the free world, has simply stopped functioning,” said Israeli newspaper columnist Hemi Shalev. “In his worst nightmares, Clinton is dreaming of a tough, bespectacled prosecutor named Kenneth Starr and not a Russian general with his finger poised on a red button.”

Peace Issues Believed Left Unattended

Ahmed Tibi, an advisor to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, shared the concern of other Israelis that an American president battling possible impeachment would have little energy left over for Middle East peacemaking. “Anything that affects Clinton affects the peace process,” Tibi said.

“There were many issues to capture the attention of the world’s most powerful man yesterday,” sniped Britain’s Sun. “How tragic that Bill Clinton’s mind was concentrated on Monica Lewinsky’s little blue dress.”

“His personal life should be a very private affair, but this will affect him globally,” said Maria de Jesus Duran, 25, a secretary in Mexico City. “People will lose confidence in him, because the president of the United States is supposed to be a trustworthy person.”

Times staff writers Rebecca Trounson in Jerusalem, Richard Boudreaux in Rome, David Holley in Warsaw, Carol J. Williams in Berlin, Marjorie Miller in London and Juanita Darling in San Salvador, and special correspondents Andrew Van Velzen in Toronto, Anthony Kuhn in Beijing, Chiaki Kitada in Tokyo, Janet Stobart in London and Greg Brosnan in Mexico City contributed to this story.