A day after President Clinton publicly acknowledged an extramarital relationship with a 21-year-old White House intern, his wife of 22 years took the extraordinary step of issuing a public statement of forgiveness.
Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton is "committed to her marriage and loves her husband", the First Lady's spokeswoman, Ms Marcia Berry, said yesterday. "She believes in the President, and her love for him is compassionate and steadfast," Ms Berry added.
Mrs Clinton's willingness to shed her usual mania for privacy and issue a status report on her marriage was a remarkable development on a day of deep uncertainty for President Clinton. It also marked a moment of unusual power, both personal and political, for the first lady.
"It is a very grand gesture, a very public gesture," said Don David Lusterman, a New York family therapist and author of In- fidelity: A Survival Guide. "If she were to go before the American people and say, `Hey, I knew, I'm not an idiot,' I don't think they'd go for it. But if she says, `I forgive him, I admire and respect him and want to make it work,' the American people love that."
Many public opinion experts believe that Mrs Clinton holds the key to her husband's political redemption at this pivotal point in his presidency. For several months, large numbers of Americans have told pollsters that if the First Lady is prepared to forgive the dalliance, they are inclined to consider President Clinton's behaviour with Ms Monica Lewinsky a private matter.
In the immediate wake of Mr Clinton's speech on Monday night, most polls showed general approval for the President, though there were signs of slippage in his approval rating.
If Mr Clinton hopes to stem that slide and rebuild his public image, White House political advisers have said Mrs Clinton must make a public show of standing by her husband. By doing so less than 12 hours after his speech, she could prove her husband's most powerful ally in the court of public opinion.
But by all accounts, there is little that rankles the First Lady more than demands for such public venting of her own feelings. In scrape after political scrape over the President's personal behaviour, Mrs Clinton has defended the family's right to privacy and attacked those who demanded explanations.
Ironically, a source close to the White House said Mrs Clinton's efforts to protect her family's privacy - as well as the President's own anger at independent counsel, Mr Ken Starr - helped set the defiant tone of President Clinton's address Monday night.
While many aides had pressed the President to adopt a more repentant tone, both of the Clintons insisted the affair should be cast as a private matter for them and them alone to resolve, not a public matter to be exploited by political adversaries.
On Tuesday, Ms Berry said Mrs Clinton was "uncomfortable with her personal life being made so public". She acknowledged that the public airing of the President's behaviour had been "painful" for the First Lady. That in itself was a remarkable admission for a woman about whom one close friend, Hollywood producer, Ms Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, once said: "They'll never make her cry in public."
"This is not one of the best days of her life, but her strong religious faith is something she's relying upon," Ms Berry said. "It's not a happy day, clearly. But she is looking forward to going on vacation with her family and having some private time together."
Among Mrs Clinton's admirers both in and outside the White House, there were many who defended the First Lady's comments Tuesday as a dignified response to unrelenting pressure. While many expressed hurt on her behalf, they expressed disappointment in her husband and, occasionally, wonderment at the first lady's willingness to stand by him.
"The very fact that somebody did us wrong in our relationships doesn't necessarily make us a victim," said Ms Elizabeth Toledo, vice-president of the National Organisation for Women. "The character of a feminist is how we respond to these challenges. It may sometimes be the right response to end the marriage, sometimes not. Forgiveness is a tremendous character strength, as well as self-confidence. She can have both throughout this."
Boston University sociologist, Mr Alan Wolfe, added that while Americans appear to be deeply confounded by the Clintons' marriage, they are likely to respect Mrs Clinton more - not less - for standing by it.