IT'S HARD TO IMAGINE that our habit of closely examining every tiny facet of a president's life is only a recent development.
Henry Graff, Columbia University historian, says, "It began with Eisenhower's heart attack - when Paul Dudley White described some of his most intimate bodily functions. We are looking for the warts, and we will find them everywhere."Just ask Bill Clinton.
Although a flood of character charges came his way during the 1992 campaign, no one expected another one just before Christmas - only a month before his first anniversary in office.
People talked about it all during the holidays - how Cliff Jackson, the president's most persistent nemesis, arranged for two Arkansas state troopers to speak to the news media about how they allegedly procured women for Clinton during his governorship.
Never mind that these troopers' own reputations are sleazy, or that 11 other troopers who served the governor denied any knowledge of any such activity, or that not a single woman has come forward to support the charges. All of this has been rehashed in the press for a couple of weeks.
What I want to talk about is not whether Clinton is guilty or innocent of the charges, as shaky as they are, but how such charges stack up against other presidents. The point is we've never really expected our presidents to be perfect.
Most have been charged with some sort of sexual indiscretion, even though many of those came to light after the president was already out of office.
I'm not even talking about John F. Kennedy, the one we talk most about where sexual indiscretions are concerned, and one of the presidents Clinton admires the most. In fact, most of the presidents whom historians have considered great have had at least one sexual indiscretion in their past.
There is considerable evidence, for instance, that both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were guilty of sexual impropriety - Washington with his neighbor's wife and Jefferson with one of his slaves - by whom he is alleged to have had offspring bearing a remarkable resemblance to him.
When Grover Cleveland was accused of fathering an illegitimate child, he admitted it. Voters elected him to the presidency anyway, probably because his opponent, the notorious financial rogue, James G. Blaine, was guilty of financial impropriety and would not own up to it.
Then there were the highly respected recent presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike was apparently unfaithful to Mamie prior to his presidency, and FDR continued to be unfaithful to Eleanor throughout his presidency.
Lyndon Johnson, who accomplished a great deal domestically in spite of the Vietnam quagmire, was known to be a sexual lout.
In other words, many of those presidents who have accomplished the most have also had the most sexually questionable reputations. On the other hand, no one would likely raise such charges against such corrupt presidents as Richard Nixon or U.S. Grant - or such mediocre presidents as Franklin Pierce or Gerry Ford.
The only unsuccessful president I can think of who has had sex charges raised against him was Warren G. Harding, whose presidency was shrouded in corruption. Recently discovered letters have revealed that Harding not only cheated on his wife, but he was sexually frustrated during his entire adult life.
Makes you think, doesn't it?
Maybe it's time to lay off Clinton. After all, he has at least three years to go before the next election.