Clinton wins the media war against Monica simply because he can

The Clinton autobiography is out-selling Harry Potter and this statistic tells us more about the marketing muscle behind the book launch than the level of content and insight from the philandering ex-president.

Affairs in the office between colleagues are so prevalent as to cause surprise when a company is discovered without one currently on the books.

The disparity between the intern and the most powerful man in the world has been apparent right from the start with all the big guns wheeled out to crush the nuisance that threatened the presidency.

Media relations are critical at any level of corporate or business dealings but the White House has become synonymous with the use of sledgehammers to kill fleas.

Lewinsky tried initially to stand up to this onslaught but was overwhelmed on many different levels and was forced to realise that all people are not equal in the US.

Clinton has refused to use the word relationship and even went so far as to say that he simply did what he did it because he could. The impersonal reference to Lewinsky as something that needed to be swatted like a fly, has caused a ruckus in many circles around the world but given the media and marketing juggernaut it doesn't really count.

The only thing that counts according to Clinton and his cronies, is that the Presidency was saved. According to Lewinsky, this was achieved at her expense and she has a point to make here as the finances and time spent swatting a fly that supposedly threatened the Presidency are out of all proportion to what actually happened.

There are precedents in world politics, none more apt than Mitterand in France and his child with his long time mistress. The French hardly batted an eyelid at the indiscretions never mind wheeling out massive media, marketing and legal resources to score a point over a damsel in distress.

Clinton's wriggling and pusillanimous attempts to convince that he had not in actual fact committed adultery, were humorous and have been well documented. The question that now needs to be asked is whether the time and expense and the use of resources was actually justified.

Just as Clinton said that he philandered because he could, it seems that he also crushed this nuisance because he could.

The ego trip that any man in his position would embark upon became in his case reality and resources were mobilised to protect not the Presidency but one man who thought he was irreplaceable.

Lewinsky also mentioned that most of the people in the US agreed that the Presidency had to be protected. This has to be qualified when assessing the extent of the marketing and media resources rolled out to sway the popular feelings.

Just as the invasion of Iraq proved, if there is sufficient marketing and media budget you can make people believe anything.

The expenditure on what amounts to a vignette in the overall scheme of things, beggars belief in a world where many are starving, out of work and dying in stupid and inconsequential conflict. Lewinsky on ITV came across as somebody that has come to terms with the reality of what happened and what she has been through - unlike Clinton who it seems lives on a planet where the turning world and the rising sun depend solely on his being present.

Anybody that cannot accept responsibility and acknowledge the other party in the indiscretion like Clinton has, raises questions about his credibility as a person, never mind as the President of the United States.

After all, Lewinsky was hardly a Soviet spy or connected with Saddam Hussein, although there must have been many hours devoted by the Presidential machinery to find a pattern and build a conspiracy theory.

Clinton had the media and Lewinsky by and large has not. However, she added a telling blow when she wondered what Clinton may do if Chelsea ends up with an older man in a similar situation and he also acts like a chauvinistic and egotistical swine - just because he could.