There was a time when we expected our political leaders to be pure, like Caesar’s wife.  Now, those were times when Americans were a bit naive and more rigid in their evaluation of what was “proper.”  I’m not longing for those days, understand, because our leaders never actually were pure of heart.  It was just that we had a lower tolerance for conduct which could end a person’s political career.

Once upon a time, a Catholic couldn’t be President.  We became more tolerant, and we got John Kennedy.  Someone who had been divorced couldn’t be President, but we became more tolerant, and we got Ronald Reagan.  Those are positive examples of increased tolerance.

Our views on personal conduct also have changed.  In the 1950’s President Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff, Sherman Adams, took a vicuna coat from someone under investigation by the FTC.  He was forced to resign in shame.  In the 1960’s LBJ’s aide Walter Jenkins was forced to resign over a supposed morals charge.  In the 1970’s, Nixon resigned over Watergate.  A President mustn’t cover up a third-rate burglary.  Ted Kennedy was involved in the death of Mary Joe Kopechne, but we were more tolerant of that.  McGovern picked Eagleton as Vice-President, but when it was learned that he had undergone psychiatric treatment, he had to go.  In the 1990’s President Clinton nominated a succession of Attorneys General who had to decline the office because, horror of horrors, they had hired nannies without paying their Social Security taxes.

Nowadays we are much more tolerant.  We have a Republican  presidential candidate (Rick Perry) who is under Indictment.  It’s a bogus Indictment, but nobody mentions this problem.

That brings us to Hillary Clinton.  She was Secretary of State when four men were killed in Benghazi, and she never explained about that, but we’re tolerant.  She broke every rule in the book by installing her own personal internet server in her bathroom to conduct government business.  She swore there was nothing classified on it, and to prove it, she refused to surrender the server to the Justice Department until she had it erased.  She’s now facing a criminal investigation.  A number of classified emails have been recovered.  One such classified document was enough to convict General Petreus.  Hillary’s not saying much about it, other than continual lies.  What’s more, she regards any question about this matter as an unfair political attack.  Meanwhile, very few people trust Hillary, even those in her own Party, and yet, she is still the putative Democratic candidate.  Ain’t tolerance a wonderful thing?