How Bill Clinton Got the Whole World to Forget That He Cheated in the White House

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Recently, I sat down and read a very in depth interview with Bill Clinton in Rolling Stone magazine. As I sat there, looking at the pictures of a dewy-eyed Bill, hands clasped as he looked on at his wife speak at a political rally, or Bill and family eating a lunch of PB & J’s and chips in their modest kitchen shortly before he was elected President, and read our former leader’s eloquent and carefully worded responses to the interviewer’s questions, something dawned on me that I have heard many others say for years: Bill Clinton is one of the greatest self-marketers of our time.

That’s right, Bill Clinton is an absolute self-marketing genius. He has all of the traits of a savvy self-marketer, and he has the results to match. He is a well loved symbol of American politics; well respected by both Democrats and Republicans, with a shining public image. In general, it can be summed up in one sentence: people really like Bill Clinton.

As I sat there reading the interview, in awe of Mr. Clinton’s self-marketing glory, a very strange fact occurred to me. I realized, in a moment of sudden clarity, a quite remarkable feat that the 42nd President of the United States had achieved.

He had made the whole world forget that while he held arguably the most important position on the entire planet, he had been having an extramarital affair with an underling that was many, many years younger than he was. In addition, it did not occur at some motel outside of town; our President was cheating on his wife in the White House. Then, after he was found out, Mr. Clinton got in front of the cameras and swore up and down that it had never occurred; then got back in front of those same cameras and admitted that he had deceived us all! And as an added bonus, he actually convinced us that it was alright that he had cheated and lied; and then he avoided impeachment on top of it all! Then, as if all of that was not enough, Mr. Clinton actually completed his Presidency with his respect intact.

Today, Mr. Clinton does public service announcements with his former political rivals, makes between $5-$10 million a year speaking, and maintains a healthy public image. All this, and when you hear his name, the massive scandal that occurred only ten short years ago is a distant memory, and barely mentioned in the press.

So, how did Bill Clinton make the whole world forget that he cheated in the White House? Although it sounds amazing, he actually did it using some very simple, easy self-marketing techniques that anybody can master with a little practice. Here, I am going to outline the four main principles that Bill Clinton lives by in order to self-market himself to super-success.

1) He is a source of positivity:

Bill Clinton has established himself as a source of positivity in the world’s eyes. He practices all of the simple, yet widely ignored techniques that all good self-marketers use to create a positive perception of themselves in others. He is nice. He is polite. Not sometimes, but all the time. He is positive, and he is agreeable. All the time. This is a very important point to make because many people have these traits sometimes, but only the few and the great possess these traits all of the time, under any circumstances.

If you would like to become a successful self-marketer, it is essential that you establish yourself as a source of positivity to others. When you do this, you will find that people will gravitate towards you, because they will always anticipate a positive reaction from you, and they expect that you will make them feel good.

So be polite. Be nice to everyone. Not sometimes, all the time. Be agreeable in your conversations, and be positive in your demeanor. All the time.

2) He makes everybody feel important:

Mr. Clinton is an expert at making his contacts and acquaintances feel as if they are special and valued. I have read several accounts of his superb networking skills.

When Bill Clinton was an up and coming politician on the Southern political scene, it has been said that he would carry a small notebook with him wherever he went. In this notebook, he would write down the name of every person that he encountered during the day, the names of any immediate family members that he could glean from them, and one or two small pieces of information about their personal lives.

He would then spend a few minutes each night memorizing the information as best he could, and then filing it into an enormous rolodex that came to hold many thousands of names. Then, whenever he ran into an old acquaintence, he was ready to charm them with small talk that made the person feel important. ” Hey George, great to see you again! How is your son’s football team doing?”, or ,” Hello Kathy! How did your bid for reelection turn out?”. No doubt, whether these people were Republican or Democrat, Clinton fan or not, they left those short conversations feeling impressed and honored that this man had remembered their goings-on in their personal lives, let alone their names. This is a surefire converter of strangers into friends and allies.

If you want to be as well liked and respected as Bill Clinton, be genuinely interested in others, and if your are not interested, act as if you are. Ask people questions about themselves. Let them talk. Remember their names. Make them feel important to you, and most importantly, treat everyone the same way. Respecting others causes them to respect you. If you follow these tips, you will be amazed at the way people you barely know will be willing to vouch for you, and you will always enjoy a sparkling reputation.

3) He stays humble and tries hard not to offend anyone:

When Mr. Clinton was President, he was known for his everyman appeal. He was a very accessible President. From publicizing his weight struggles to publicizing his family life, Clinton made the average American feel like he was one of them. Even when he was caught cheating, it added to his vulnerability and made Americans feel as if the most powerful man in the world struggled with the same urges and moral dilemmas that they did.His humility is one of the most endearing qualities about him, and has added to his likability immensely.

In addition, Mr. Clinton is very careful not to offend any person or group. He stays amiable and diplomatic, and understands the need to maintain his positive image, even in the midst of criticism. When he was President, he was renowned for including many different races in his cabinet, and he won the admiration of the nation’s minorities like no other leader has as a result.

He makes sure not to attack anybody, even when given a prime opportunity to.In the Rolling Stone interview that I mentioned earlier, the interviewer gives Mr. Clinton plenty of opportunities to attack the Republican party. He never indulges. Rather than undermine our present leaders (which is not hard to do these days), or attack the same people who are slandering his wife on a daily basis in the press, the former President knows that he must take the high road and not be lowered to the level of the common politician by engaging in needless blame or name-calling. In fact, he does the opposite; he actually gives the Republicans a small amount of credit for their virtues.

This approach accomplishes a few important things. First, it maintains his image as a source of positivity. Secondly, it maintains his credibility and sets him apart and above the vast majority of people who readily indulge in name-calling and negative disputes with others.

Finally, it causes anybody who attacks him to look like a bully, and lowers the credibility of that person in the eyes of others. Everybody hates a bully, and often if two people are engaged in a feud during which one vehemently attacks the other, and the other does not respond, it will automatically endear the victim of the criticism to any outside observers.

Therefore, in order to be as charming as Bill Clinton, remember to be humble around others at all times. Also, never indulge in petty disputes, bad-mouthing, or blame games. These two principles are difficult for many people to adhere to, but if you follow them, you are guaranteed a peaceful existence and the good favor of the people around you.

4) If you do make a mistake, behave as if it never happened, and then watch people forget it completely:

The fourth and final vital principle that helped Bill Clinton to maintain his respect and credibility in the face of one of the greatest scandals of our time is to act as if your mistakes have never happened. Acknowledge them initially, apologize where its due, confront it and then discard it completely. Act as if your mistakes are insignificant, and everyone else will follow suit.

When Bill Clinton was discovered to have lied to the world on network television, he handled it perfectly. As soon as people started catching on, he realized that he was caught. So he did what any smart self-marketer would do. He reacted immediately and confronted the situation. He admitted that he had lied. He apologized for lying, and he made everyone understand why he did what he did. He humanized his situation and put himself on equal footing with the people. Then, he never spoke of it again.

Everybody makes mistakes. Everyone has weaknesses and low points. A great self-marketer will address the situations that need addressing when they come up (in order to make them go away) and then act as if the situation does not affect their reputation and who they are (which it doesn’t), and then they will simply move on and act as if nothing ever happened. If you execute this correctly, you will find that after a relatively short period of time, almost everybody will forget that anything ever happened, and even if they do remember, most people will not care anyway.

Bill Clinton perfectly executed this principle. It is the reason why to this day, the vast majority of people hardly remember anything about Lewinsky Gate, and an even greater majority of people don’t care that it happened, and view Mr. Clinton as a positive, reputable, and powerful former leader.

You see, people only see what they choose to see, and people only believe what they choose to believe. This is the main reason why it is important to be a great self-marketer, and also the main reason why Bill Clinton got away with such a seemingly unforgivable offense. He was such a savvy self-marketer, and made people like him so much, that they chose not to see his downfalls and lack of moral judgment. In essence, people chose to forget that he cheated in the White House and then lied about it. They like him so much that it simply does not matter to them.

You see, if people like you, you can do no wrong, and if people dislike you, you can do no right. It is literally as simple as that. This is the reason why it is essential that you begin to market yourself in an intelligent way. You must practice these principles that I have outlined here today, because without them, you path to success will be an uphill battle, and with them, it will be an escalator ride to the top.

After reading this article, you may begin to regard self-marketing as deception, and equate great charmers such as Bill Clinton with deceit and manipulation. But this is a very unhealthy and ignorant way to view the topic of marketing yourself to the world. Self-marketing is mostly about being a nice, positive, and pleasant person. There is nothing wrong with being charming; charmers are simply nice, positive people who make those around them feel good, and therefore reap the benefits of friendship and positivity from others as a direct result. The only people who resent charming people and good self-marketers are those who are not good self-marketers themselves, and lack a basic understanding of the principles of getting along with others. As long as they choose to view self-marketing as deception, they will always be doomed to struggle their way to success and not understand why they have such a hard time dealing with their peers. Do not let yourself fall victim to their ignorant ways of thinking. Good self-marketing benefits everybody.

So there you have it; the four powerful self-marketing principles that Bill Clinton used to make the whole world forget that he cheated in the White House. I hope that this article has taught you how to positively promote yourself to others, and has been an interesting critique on a very interesting man. I urge you to practice these principles in your everyday life, and watch yourself achieve similar positive results, both professionally and personally.