With all due respect to my favorite professor, Steve, you said it yourself, " Libido is a strong instinct." Plan and simple- sex plays a role in any decision-making process, from the candidate's judgment on what issues should be addressed (when he refers to that lobbyist's requests in his pile of paperwork in the Oval Office) to the American public's choice for our next President (shouldn't we need to know these tidbits, however played up or down they might be?). Yes, the media condenses stories to sensational, sound bites and yes, the public absorbs this and neglects the fuller, contextual truth of the story, but we live in a culture in our conservative country where sex is still largely taboo and that's just how it goes. We relish in the gossip around sex because we don't feel we can talk about it freely. Overcompensatory? Perhaps. Look at France- they want the President's bedroom business out of the media. Perhaps the free-flowing wine and open discussions of sexual affairs as part of their mainframe makeup in France accounts for their ability to look past the sex and see the whole picture. Where's our wine? Best, Allison Steinberg 646.413.8918 [log in to unmask] ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com