Normally, scandals have no impact on elections or even public opinion. We saw that during the Clinton years with assorted sex, commodity futures and influence-peddling scandals, and worse still, in the great skating of the Obama administration, which spied on Americans, sicced the IRS on political dissidents, left a U.S. ambassador to die, and worst of all, tried to derail the next incumbent with a pile of Russian-generated chaos-inducing propaganda, a phonily premised impeachment, a string of riots, and a host of dirty political tricks. Water off a duck's back. Nobody's paid, and Joe Biden's ahead in the polls.  Scandals, it seems, excite the base of an opposing party, but they don't sell among the broader electorate. They don't affect elections. Or so the view would go of anyone who's watched U.S. politics for the past 40 years. But every once in awhile, there is one that takes off, changes the momentum. Watergate comes to mind....(Read Full Post)