"Many" were out of their minds. Last month I was rereading Joan Didion's articles from the NYRB as collected in Political Fictions. She's fascinated by the ability of the public, as opposed to the "liberal media," to spot an obvious perjury trap and to shrug off Clinton's philandering (never sure why it's not "philgynering," but YKWIM).

No, but there wouldn't have been an impeachment.

Sam Donaldson thought Clinton would have to resign over the adultery scandal. Many were surprised at the public's willingness to accept such conduct.

Mostly, though, it’s because Giuliani wasn’t, so far as we know, doing it in the Oval Office and then lying about it under oath.

Oh come on. You're telling us that if Clinton had ponied up the story would have gone away? That Republicans wouldn't have been SHOCKED that such "high crimes and misdemeanors" had taken place IN THE WHITE HOUSE?

Let's have a -shred- of academic honesty here...

Why Bill Clinton's past infidelity is more relevant to his wife's candidacy than Rudy Giuliani's own infidelity is to his own candidacy is an exercise left to the reader.