Political Office and "Character"

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

This mostly comes up when public opinion, by-and-large, has established a candidate or politician as a philanderer. Said person is usually defended by a crowd of their supporters that offer some sort of excuse; it usually follows the rather un-nuanced claim that someone's personal life should have nothing to do with their administrative ability.

My own position right now would be that (1) someone engaging in "unethical"--dare we say immoral--behavior can affect someone's administrative abilities--take blackmail or scandal--and moreover does represent their ability to follow oaths that they freely take. But (2) perhaps more importantly, it indicates to some extent how the candidate treats and uses people around them.

I myself have vacillated on this at times, but I'd like to see others not just state, but explain their views. So are politicians mere tools of an ideological program where it does not matter what they do so long as they implement or support certain policies, or are we to think of our political/civic leadership as humans beings to be judged in their own right?