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"When we are no longer able to change a situation — we are challenged to change ourselves."
— Victor E. Frankl

It really depends on what they did and what their job is. If they did something illegal, it will impact my decision. Immoral is a matter of personal opinion.

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~Happiness is a large family~

It has never bothered me when a politician has an affair or is "outed", it never bothered me with Pres Clinton (the whole Lewinsky affair)...I am not married to him, that is his family's business. That is what drove me crazy about the whole "impeachment" issue. However, if a politician runs on his personal affairs, and uses them to bolster himself in the public eye, then yes, his personal life becomes our business. You can't have it both ways, make people think you're this wonderful family man, and then be outed in some way and profoundly express your regret and remorse and beg for privacy. Most if not all politicians abuse their power in some way. Do they flaunt how perfect they are beforehand? If not, then I can accept their issues. Edwards always presented himself as a supportive, caring family man. He should be ashamed of himself. But again, he is Elizabeths burden, not mine.

I shouldn't but it still kind of bugs me. Truthfully, as long as it was not dealing with matters of public interest, I wish our media would just stay out of it. But that is not how thing work these days.

I think their values are, well, valuable in our making our choice. We hold our elected officials and even police to a higher standard than, say, our neighbor. I truly feel that their personal values dictate what their values will be in a position of power. Unfortunately, once one moral code is broken, the second and third become easier. I want someone in office who mirrors my values on the important things, and the small breaches of moral stances tend to turn into big ones over time. If they lie about an affair or smoking pot or something, how do we know they won't lie over a promise to the voters for things like no new taxes () or following through on Social Security reform or healthcare reform?

It comes down to: what will it take for them to be compromised? Money? Power? An elected official should be blackmail proof.

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Make someone's heart smile today.

A lot of it depends on the circumstances. Where did this occur? The oval office? Then, yes, that would bother me as it is an abuse of power, especially if an intern is the other woman. Where did the cover up money come from? Was it from his personal money or was it from some fund or fundraising money? What was their initial platform, family values, wonderful family life, etc.? Personally, for me, my opinion of Edwards went way down when he did not quit the race after his wife was diagnosed again with cancer, but that is MY opinion and spoke volumes about him as a person to me at the time.

And, of course, the cover up and lies after the fact bother me, too.

For me, it's all in how they handle things..Honesty is what is most important to me!