To judge by the blockbuster ratings for 60 Minutes, I must be one of the few politically sentient adults to have missed the Stormy Daniels interview on Sunday night, just as I earlier missed Karen McDougal's high-rated interview on CNN. This was partly because I was having dinner with my family at a restaurant that was mercifully TV-free. But it's also because I just don't care what these women have to say about their alleged flings with President Donald Trump.
Admittedly, it's fun to see liberals and conservatives compete in the hypocrisy Olympics. Liberals who were oh-so-understanding of Bill Clinton's relationship with a White House intern are now gleefully attacking Trump for his purported relationships with a porn star and a Playboy playmate. Conservatives who claimed that Clinton was the second coming of Beelzebub are now happy to give Trump a "mulligan" for his moral infractions.
But who, at the end of the day, really cares? Voters knew what kind of man Trump was when they elected him. Thrice-married, he has made no secret of his infidelities. He is said to have loved the New York Post article in which his mistress-turned-second-wife Marla Maples claimed: "Best Sex I've Ever Had." A month before the 2016 election, voters were treated to the Access Hollywood tape on which Trump bragged about how he "moved . . . very heavily" on a married woman, and also about how as a "star" he was allowed to grab women "by the p***y". Trump's very lack of pretensions to morality render him bulletproof against charges of immorality.
Attempts to prove that Trump violated campaign-finance laws by having his lawyer pay off Stormy Daniels are likely to prove no more successful than a similar case against John Edwards involving his pregnant mistress. It will probably be impossible to link Trump to the unidentified man who Daniels says threatened her.