Originally Posted by pigglet

If people set themselves up to an extent as demogogues, and put themselves in the public eye, then I think there's a certain expectation that these sort of details of their lives can come out. I don't see many political figures holding themselves up as idealogues operating in a vacuum, but seems that most of them want to be seen as typical good old Americans, one of the people, living and working for the American Dream. If the politician were to adopt a "Do as I say, not as I Do" position in developing their public personas, then sure - they're just setting policy as strategic political philosophers, and thus the details of their actual lives are incidental. I don't think that they position themselves this way, and thus I can understand how directly attacking their credibility is germane to their political position.