Would Pussygate have been more damaging against another candidate?

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Yes.  People underestimate how unlikable Clinton was simply because she was the (de facto) alternative binary choice against Trump.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

I came back from Ohio (after fleeing from a major hurricane) to Florida and saw "Pussygate" on TV and thought Trump was finished.  And I was mega-disgusted with Trump . . . until I learned that the tape was from 2005 and was from the cutting room floor.

Of course people shouldn't do this, but people also resent being outed over situations when they have a reasonable expectation of privacy.  That this sort of "outing" happened to Trump mitigated the outrage people perhaps should have had over Julian Assange publicizing Hillary's e-mails (along with Podesta's, Palmeiri's, etc.).

I'm not really sure about how this scandal would have affected Trump if, say, Martin O'Malley were the Democratic nominee.  Sanders has his own somewhat controversial past writings on sex (or so I hear) that would have gotten more attention in that situation.  In truth, 2016 was such a weird year that I can't really say for sure whether or not it would have been better or worse for Trump if it were a typical bland Democrat.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

I'm pretty sure sexual assault was unacceptable in 2005.

But Trump seems to have a way to move above it better than anybody ever

The tape, however, was not evidence of sexual assault; it was a rather foolish grown man trash talking with another foolish grown man while the camera was still running.

Is this locker room talk?  It was when I played jock sports.

Is it right?  Of course not.  But it WAS an old tape, made while Trump was a private citizen.  That is relevant in making a decision on such a bizarre event as the revelation of that tape.

One could only speculate what JFK and RFK would be saying on tapes and videos recorded from Camelot (if there were such private tapes).  That doesn't make Trump's behavior right, either.

People are rightly indignant about running embarassing tapes of people that happened decades ago when those tapes don't contain any illegal activities.  They saw the treatment of Trump over that episode as fundamentally unfair.  I'm sure a lot of folks thought of some of their embarassing escapades that weren't taped and viewed the running of this tape (which was supposed to have been destroyed) as fundamentally unfair.