Througout American history we’ve had one president who was a bachelor when he took the oath of office. Just one out of the 44 presidents that have governed this country since its inception. In America, as modern as we claim it to be, we still hold very traditional family values. In running for office, a person's private life is inevitably tied to public life.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy just had a daughter, his fourth child, with his third wife, Carla Bruni.

There is absolutely no way that would’ve been acceptable in the United States.

Sarkozy, rumored to have had an affair after he divorced his second wife in 2007, began courting his current wife Bruni that same year. Not only would that behavior be considered incredibly disrespectful in the States, it probably would’ve cost him his position.

Let us not forget that Bill Clinton nearly had to resign after the sex scandal involving Monica Lewinsky. The public simply refused to accept a cheater as the president of the United States. If the man couldn’t keep his family life together, how was he supposed to keep the country together? That was the mindset in the U.S.

But in France it seems that people are very capable of separating the two. How Sarkozy function's outside of office and lives his own life is irrelevant to his competency as the France's president.

It’s fascinating how different the standard is for those who are in public office in these two different countries. Are we supposed to think that America is just too traditional? Or that France too modern? 

What do you think?