PALO ALTO, Calif.

So Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is shaming his nation. That’s what the pundits worldwide are saying as the Italian courts pursue charges of bribery, corruption and tax evasion. But by far the most visible allegations revolve around his sexual escapades.

But before we all clamber aboard that bandwagon, is it possible we misunderstand? After all, as the prime minister explained at a recent news conference, “to my male colleagues present here I say: Raise your hand and tell me you don’t think it’s nice to rest your eyes on pleasant and enjoyable feminine presences — rather than sitting at a table with people lacking aesthetic qualities.”

Certainly that must be why he showed up at 18-year-old Noemi Letizia’s birthday party last spring. It’s probably a coincidence that Letizia, a model, poses for provocative photos in her underwear. That couldn’t have been why he gave her a nice birthday present, a gold necklace worth about $10,000.

Berlusconi’s wife was angry. She left him, saying that his visit to the birthday party “really surprised me because he has never come to the 18th birthday parties of any of our three children, despite being invited.”

Come on, now. Berlusconi is the prime minister of Italy. He has a busy schedule. Even a young Noemi Letizia understands that. “I am in awe of him,” she told an interviewer. “He calls me, and I go to him.” But only “if he has time.”

His own children recognize that their father has a difficult schedule. One of them, Pier Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister’s eldest son, is vice chairman of Mediaset SpA, the Italian commercial television network his father founded. He recently remarked that his father “never even knew exactly what I was doing or what my work was. I know this can sound strange, but it is the way things went.” And then there are those unfortunate dalliances with prostitutes. Prosecutors are questioning businessman Giampaolo Tarantini for allegedly paying several dozen women to sleep with senior government officials — including Berlusconi. Tarantini did not deny the charge but insisted that he paid the women, not Berlusconi.

Of course not. As Berlusconi explained: “The joy and satisfaction lies in the conquest. If you pay, what joy would there be?”

Berlusconi is, of course, the richest man in his nation. He owns Italy’s three most important television channels as well as several satellite and digital stations, and he learned quickly what Italians like to watch. In his most famous program, a game show back in the 1980s, a comely “housewife” took off an article of clothing every time a contestant gave a correct answer. Berlusconi figured if he liked it, Italians would love it. And they did.

So don’t Berlusconi’s sexual peccadilloes — even the orgies he is said to hold at his villa in Sardinia — appeal to his people and make him a more attractive politician? Of course, he says.

“I think Italians recognize themselves in me,” he told a gathering of young members of his political party last month. “I am one of them. I was poor; I am interested in the things that interest them. I love football, I smile, I love others — and above else beautiful women.”

To that, the audience gave him enthusiastic applause.

Berlusconi himself is Italy’s favorite soap opera right now. The newspapers are full of his improprieties and diversions. For example, two newspapers, Corriere della Sera and La Stampa, recently reported that Tarantini told police he lined up 30 women for Berlusconi and his friends, “if the need arose,” and brought them to 18 parties in Berlusconi’s homes in Rome and Sardinia in 2008 and 2009.

“I wanted to meet Premier Berlusconi, and to that end I spent a lot to get into contact with him, knowing his taste for women,” Tarantini told the papers. “I merely accompanied to his house young women who I introduced as my friends while keeping quiet about the fact that I sometimes paid them.”

You’d assume that all of the press coverage, all of that back-room business, would spell Berlusconi’s political demise. Think of Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, both of whom are accused of covering up extra-marital affairs. The South Carolina legislature is considering impeachment, and Ensign’s re-election prospects appear to be slim.

What about Berlusconi? Do we misunderstand? If the public opinion polls are an indicator, we do indeed misunderstand. His popularity among Italians, in recent polls, stands at 63 percent — a figure any chief of state would envy. What do Italians know that we don’t?

brinkley@foreign-matters.com