It’s just too easy to condemn with speculation; “Questions remain about the former Senator’s links to Martian prostitutes”.

And even simple facts aren’t simple.

I have an ex-girlfriend who’s repeatedly threatened to kill me; if I were to run for office, someone could easily dig her up and learn all sorts of terrible things about me. Would the fact that she’s a manic-depressive subject to hallucinations matter? Not once the dirt had been dished.

I see he is ahead. He would beat Hillary and Obama sitting down.

In general, as a politician, you say what you mean, and you mean what you say. This has the added bonus of driving your opponents, and the media, stark raving bonkers. Up a wall, across the ceiling, and down another wall upside down! The folks I help get elected rarely deviate from this, and when they do, it’s generally regretted.

In the words of Ronald Reagan, you tell the truth, because then you don’t have to remember which story you told to whom.

In my personal life, I accept my friends for what they are, not for what I’d wish them to be. I do nopt wish to hear someone else tell nasty stories about my friends, and folks in general do not tell stories around me, because it’s known I’ll not tolerate it. I’ll go find the victim and say “So and so said the following about you, do you know why they’d do that?” Then I go to the folks the gossiper was talking to and inform them all of what I’ve found.

Hence, I’m generally the person asked to make peace between conflicting persons. it’s called an honest broker.

It’s how I’ve lasted around national level politics, as an advisor, for about 30 years.