Herman Cain is one of the many Republican candidates for the American presidency. Somewhat unsurprisingly a woman has come forward claiming to have had a 13 year long affair with him. I say 'unsurprisingly' as it appears every other candidate is found out by his dallying with a woman of some kind at some time. In'the land of the free' some things are not 'free' after all.
There is something worrying about all this. Apart from the loose living candidates, not to mention their women who appear always to be the 'innocent' parties, at least when they appear on television talk shows, in the press and in magazine articles for months and years to come, apart from all this there is a hypocrisy in requiring high standards from leaders while not living in similar manner ourselves. American presidents must be married, to one wife, no girlfriends, no sexual perversions, nothing 'immoral' must be found upon him. However this is a nation in which many demand the absurdity of 'gay marriage,' in which millions are aborted annually, millions on the welfare schemes, and those who have resist strongly sharing their wealth with those who have not, especially the sick or old! Surely something is amiss? The UK is of course no better. We demand from leaders that which we allow elsewhere, especially where we are concerned.
An individual, whether king or peasant, ought to have a private life, and we can see with the inquiry into the UK media just how little privacy anyone actually has, yet we demand from them a moral stability that we can respect. Surely the first thing that matters must be their ability, not the faults they share with us all? Lord Palmerston had many women at his beck and call, and often they were involved in other nations governments, and this helped him, and them, no end. he lasted until he was 81 in high office, although Victoria would not allow him into Buckingham Palace as he was 'not respectable.' Today he would be hounded out. Churchill drank and was called a drunk, although in fact he was never a drunk in any way, JFK had his women and at that time it was ignored, he would not be seen as a hero today by many. How many leaders of ability were 'moral?' Few if any. The very job makes straight forward moral decisions difficult. The US requires a leader with the ability to do the job in front of him, his peccadilloes may tell us much about him but must not be the predominant factor. If they are many good leaders from the past would never have got there.
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