Post-Watergate, this would also be why voters are so quick to discard candidates who "fail" the "character test." Whether initially supported for character-- or for positions on issues-- that character thing is burned into voters' thought processes now for the foreseeable future.

The pendulun used to swing the other way-- famously, for instance, widespread support for JFK despite his later-documented philandering.

It's always been a balancing act, as the pendulum swings, probably ever since there WAS such a thing as "political science." LOL-- it's seldom even an art, much less a science.

~Susan