Private Life, Public Office

• Share

(2 of 2)

"This is a tragedy, a real loss for all of us, that a really impressive man has been brought down this way. The character of candidates and Presidents is crucial. But the media aren't able to deal adequately with real and total character; their judgments are based on such old-fashioned, puritanical pieces of evidence. The character question should deal with the totality of a person. How does he treat people? Does he keep his word? Is he wise and fair? How does he handle subordinates? The real humaneness of the man."

Sissela Bok, Brandeis University professor of philosophy and author of Lying and other books on ethics

"The most loving of fathers and husbands have failed at governing. By the standards of the ideal husband, men like Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt might have been disqualified. What's really at issue with Hart? Not whether he's the perfect husband. It's whether or not the man is telling the ; truth. Voters need to be able to trust candidates and Presidents, not take comfort in their successful marriages. In the past, candidates didn't feel so obliged to drag wives and husbands and kids onto the platform. Now it's become obligatory. And sometimes it leads to great anguish."

Doris Kearns Goodwin, biographer of Lyndon Johnson and author of The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys

"In the past allegations of extramarital affairs had no impact on an Administration because the reporting didn't occur until the presidency was over. This may be the first time that this issue affects the course of the future. If the Hart episode reveals a sense of insulation, that he could take these kinds of risks and not worry about appearance, then that's worrisome. Because when Presidents get into the structure of the White House, they begin to feel above ordinary rules and believe they can take risks and not get caught.

"In some ways affairs show a human quality to these people. So I guess you have to ask yourself whether you'd prefer Franklin Roosevelt with Lucy Mercer and John Kennedy with his various women to Richard Nixon in his striped pajamas talking to Bebe Rebozo."

David Reisman, Harvard sociologist

"I'm against the cult of candor, of letting it all hang out. To moralize on this issue in the campaign without talking about truly important things like the arms race trivializes our society. No one can afford to be President who has no imagination, but I fear that is what we are beginning to get."

Robert Caro, biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson

"It's legitimate to try to know all we can about a candidate. The moral and personal tone a President sets is as vital for the nation as his foreign policy. If we had known more about the character of some Presidents, we might not have elected them. Nonetheless, there is an element of prurience -- and not just with the press. What's wrong is that we give the sexual revelations such disproportionate weight."