The author dismantles the president's defenses, brick by evasive brick, and analyzes the meaning of the Clinton scandals: why they matter, what the public reaction to them means, and the social and political damage they have already inflicted on America. The most persuasive public arguments made by the president's supporters wither under the clear light of moral reason and common sense. The book exposes the fallacious and demeaning logic that argues our economic well-being is the only important measure of presidential performance; torpedoes the deep but wholly unexamined respect for European sophistication about private matters; and explains why the president's troubles are the result of his own doings.