Quote:
Originally Posted by Quzor
Lots of people do things they are ashamed of or embarrassed about, all the time. Most of our politicians do stuff like that in college, which is the time to do it. No one should be held accountable for stuff they did so long ago, especially if it has no bearing on their abilities at this point.
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I agree that the fact that they react to such allegations the way that they do and are always denying does further the notion of distrust. But any candidate who does something that some group of people dislikes becomes vulnerable. Perhaps if a mainstream candidate marketed himself on honesty and being open, admitting things like that could work - everyone could agree that this guy was open, we could admit that everyone does shameful things, and they'd figure that the guys who weren't saying anything were hiding skeletons in the closet. Currently, anything like this is seized upon by the competition in order to make themselves look more perfect while bringing their competitors down.
I don't think that they need to come out and say every shameful thing they've ever done, but it wouldn't hurt if they could just be up front. I'd certainly judge them for some of their actions, and I'd imagine that a handful of others would, too. If they did drugs, I'd judge them as either being weak of character or not having the same morals that I do. It doesn't make or break a candidate, but it'd be something I'd consider.