redlightning
Banned
What if during the first term of Warren G. Harding, his infidelities were discovered and made public by the press?
I suppose that, if he'd seriously angered a newspaper, they might decide to get revenge--but as has been said, the papers generally didn't publish the truth about such matters. I don't understand WHY, but they didn't.
Doesn't seem like there will be much more than noise. Recall that Cleveland, 35 years earlier, fathered a child out of wedlock. When questioned, he said bluntly "tell them the truth" and it didn't affect his White House run.
Men will be men, don't you know? Certainly has nothing to do with the Presidency, and the last time an affair went public, 1884, nobody cared. It wasn't really until after Watergate and more women became political reporters that personal integrity became an open question.
It recalls a story about a Utah Senator who ran into opposition because he had once lived in polygamy. One colleague remarked that he preferred "a polygamist who doesn't polyg" to a "monogamist who doesn't monog". Evidently he knew some of his fellows who belonged in the latter category.
Please recall that the original poster was asking if Harding's infidelities would affect his chances of a 2nd term. This is moot because of his health issues and was replaced on the Republican ticket by Cal Coolidge. His infidelities didn't help but almost certainly ran well behind the corruption of his cabinet if not himself, remember Teapot Dome?
For the Press of this time to run with the story, it would have to be very messy and public. He'd need to get a mistress pregnant, probably. Maybe have her married to another man