The charges of the alleged bribes paid to the Senate by the Executive branch, confirmed before Justice by the Vice President in August and believed by most of the people place President Fernando de la Rúa in an awkward political situation.

In turn, while the presidential image reported a steep drop in the last months, society still pledges support to De la Rúa trying not to link him to the bribes-for-votes scandal and even waiting for arguments to assert this belief.

To fully understand this phenomenon it is worth mentioning two cases of the American politics in the last years.

The first is President Nixon’s ‘Watergate’. A minor intelligence operation, which targeted phone taps linked to the internal electoral process, is denounced by the press. In view of the allegation, the Executive launches many types of defenses to curb damage holding middle officials accountable for the facts. But the public opinion rejects once and again the arguments and moves aimed at ‘estranging’ the president from the episode. The situation finally ends with Nixon’s fall highly-wanted by the American public opinion from the outset of the crisis as polls found from the first moment.

The political society longed for a renewal after the Vietnam syndrome and deemed the President’s collapse as the chance to purify the country.

A decade later, President Reagan coped with the so-called ‘Irangate’ or ‘Iran-Contras’ case. The National Security Council identifies a triangulation of arms trade to finance the ‘contras’ Nicaraguans movement against the Sandinista government with the wide support of the Reagan administration. The case became known nationwide and it was alleged that illegal means were being used to finance an official policy. Investigations focused on Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North who was engaged in the National Security Council and was linked to the case.

The situation was different from that a decade before with the previous US Republican President. This time, the public opinion -optimistic and satisfied with the Reagan administration- denies the possibility for the President to be linked to the fact and even tends to exonerate middle officials whose involvement may taint the presidential image.

That is how Oliver North is held accountable for a political decision that was beyond his power and the public opinion, influenced by the previous mood that tends to exonerate the President, accepts him.

Comparing both situations to that of the Argentine Senate it is clear that despite the drop in the President’s image, the Argentine public opinion as regards De la Rúa matches that concerning Reagan and not Nixon. It all points that the image of a President at the beginning of his term does not want to be tainted.

But in our case, the Executive fails to quickly create its Oliver North, that is, the official on which the public opinion is free to place the blame, then the crisis may worsen deteriorating the government even more.