Evangelical leaders demanded presidential character and sexual accountability during Clinton’s scandal.

Evidence

Like Schlafly, Dobson was appalled by his fellow citizens’ willingness to excuse the president’s behavior as “just a private affair—something between himself and Hillary.” Reminding readers that military officials were being held accountable for sexual misconduct, Dobson found it “profoundly disturbing” that the rules seemed to be rewritten for Clinton. What’s more, Clinton’s dishonesty was part of a long history of immorality and untruthfulness. He’d lied about Gennifer Flowers and about dodging the draft. He’d “visited the Soviet Union and other hostile countries during the Vietnam War, claiming that he was only an ‘observer.’” He’d organized and participated in antiwar rallies, and evaded questions about his marijuana use. “Character DOES matter,” Dobson opined. “You can’t run a family, let alone a country, without it.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 332

Categorization

• XREF: Direct foreshadowing of the book’s central continuity claim — the ‘character matters’ standard applied to Clinton but abandoned for Trump, undercutting the hypocrisy-versus-continuity reading.