Public Figures - Should what they do always be public?

[Lilitu]

The mayor of Auckland City Len Brown has recently been revealed to have had an affair with Bevan Chuang an aspiring pollitician.

It reminded everybody of the Bill Clinton Sex Scandal.

What do you think about the private lives of Public figures? Should their private affairs affect their public standing?

I think that they should. I don't think it's right that an adulterer is the mayor of Auckland, and so do many others.

He should stand down in my opinion. I cannot see how someone who does wrong in his private life, betray his wife and children, is not simultaneously betraying his city. It's shocking and disappointing.

And I could not believe he had the nerve tell the community and press to respect his family "as he goes through this time" as if he were a victim!

[Wade]

I just want politicians to do the job they're supposed to do. I don't care one iota about their personal lives, nor do I think that it should have any effect on their qualification, anymore than I care about my mailman's personal life.

Mailman... just make sure I get my goddam New Yorker and Netflix.

And Politician... just make sure that the pot holes are filled.

Everything else is irrelevant.

[dfiant1]

I don't want to know ANYTHING about any politician...they are not the slightest bit interesting.

We vote for them, we pay them to do a job that's exactly what they should be doing...not voting for their own pay rises and having affairs...non of my business.

[Shiner]

I don't want to know the private lives of public figures, unless they are activists or do it themselves mostly for joking reasons or for the common good of people (like George Takei etc)

The bigger problem I have with this is someone calling their child Bevan Chuang. I can only assume mixed background family? Welsh based first name and from what I assume from the spelling would be a Chinese surname (correct me if I'm wrong).

She is quite pretty though, but has a look about her in all of her pictures that she would be snobby (I think its the upper lip thing going on in all her pictures)

Len Brown looks like a doofus and a perv though. Reminds me of a used car salesman.

[Waylon777]

I think, if they are doing what they are supposed to do, why would anyone else care about it. I mean, the trust should be built from what they do at their work, and not in their bed or private life. That's there's to concern, not ours to step in trample all over like some sort of chimpanzee. Then again, Toronto mayor Rob Ford is quite a MAJOR A$$HOLE and a d0uche. I know that he promised the to build railways from the suburbs to down town Toronto, but he has done nothing about it.. Why make a promise that you can't keep and use it as a way to win an election...

[Lilitu]

I don't want to know the private lives of public figures, unless they are activists or do it themselves mostly for joking reasons or for the common good of people (like George Takei etc)

The bigger problem I have with this is someone calling their child Bevan Chuang. I can only assume mixed background family? Welsh based first name and from what I assume from the spelling would be a Chinese surname (correct me if I'm wrong).

She is quite pretty though, but has a look about her in all of her pictures that she would be snobby (I think its the upper lip thing going on in all her pictures)

Len Brown looks like a doofus and a perv though. Reminds me of a used car salesman.

Lots of Chinese people have Western first names, I have one too. She has a traditional Cantonese name as well...

We have to take them because it's easier to have Western-sounding names if we live in English speaking countries. One of my neighbours in the early 2000s found it nearly impossible to get employed with his Chinese name but then he changed his family name to Edwards and he found a job. And it's Bevan because people from Hong Kong tend to have really unusual names like Rowena or Sammi or Bevan.

[partis]

if the private affairs of all public figures affected there standing: and we knew of those private affairs then we prob wouldnt have many public figures left.

[Pix]

It depends how pragmatic you are. It does appear that that politicians are drawn from brash egotists and those seeking their own advantage at the expense of everyone else, that is they're a very disreputable lot and that's to be expected. And given the other inherent problems (from corruption to SNAFU caused by various sources as no one willing to tell their boss anything other than what the boss wants to hear for very good reason if you know how it often works out when someone does with the end result being that even when trying to make a rational decision they're making decisions with false information) then one should simply be happy that they don't burn the place down while they're in office. I've heard the expression that all politicians lies, cheats, steals (and sometimes even kills, through proxies of course) and therefore choose the one who will do all of that for you (that is where you benefit as well). And so in the grand scheme of things abusing the trust of the people (even their own wives) is not important as anyone who doesn't expect them to be that way is such a naive fool as they probably shouldn't be voting anyway. (However, his getting caught at it could suggest incompetence which isn't good...)

But if you're more romantic/idealistic about "the good government can do" then it becomes a concern because if the man cheats on and deceives his wife then it's a pretty sure bet he's lying to and cheating the public as well. And the general idea in a democracy (at least in theory) is that as politicians and the institutions (such as the police and military) they manage can do things that would be wrong (and often criminal) in private life, for example the police enforcing a law with violence or passing new taxes (which would be robbery done by anyone else no matter how "noble" the act was intended to be) that they therefore must endure much less privacy so that they can be held accountable for how they use such power, and if they're irresponsible or worse about it then they can be removed for more honorable sorts...and that voters should thoroughly vet any and all candidates for character as well as stated issues and past votes (as if they're dishonest, as in marital infidelity, then they're dishonest with the voters, too). The loss of their privacy and the higher standards is seen as an expected and necessary trade off for having the power to do things the rest of us can't (that is if you got your armed people to enforce your will then you'd be a terrorist or organized criminal, but if you get elected then you're the law/will of the people).

So pick one...are you pragmatic (and in that case cheating is acceptable though it's possible his getting caught is not) or idealistic (and thus believe higher standards and accountability is called for to go with their corresponding greater power they're entrusted with)?

[pellaz]

drgsdfgsdfgsdfgsdf

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Well I felt very very sorry for Hillary Clinton during that term in office. Not so much because fo the cheating angle, but the public humiliation of having every single detail thrown out there.

In a way she was victimized over and over and over again the horror for me is how everyone wanted to talk about it all the time with so few people thinking about the innocent people on the side being pulled through the mud. Sheesh.

Crises in the White House. I fail to see how this was a crises - least ways not a crises for the Nation. A crises for the Clinton Marriage - yes, definitely.

Affairs and cheating shouldn't be the media's fare to spread around. Those so rarely involve the workings of the job. Murder, Mayhem, lying, stealing - you know doing things with the office to attain more power, more money whatever - yeah those are important to know.