With USA Today’s reporting on Monday of 20 women having sued Donald Trump for either gender-based mistreatment or discrimination, the “shock” expressed by many — especially those of the media and political class — is frankly disingenuous. Trump’s indiscretions should be surprising to no one. His lack of presidential character is one of the primary reasons conservatives opposed his nomination. Trump is a known quantity with serious character flaws in his personal life. The Leftmedia for the most part chose to store up these issues until it proved politically expedient for Hillary Clinton to talk about them.

Speaking of the Clintons, we could credit — or better yet, blame — them for creating the culture of rationalizing the separation and compartmentalization of a political figure’s personal life from their public service record. In 1992, Bill Clinton was confronted on “60 Minutes” with accusations of his marital infidelity. He countered with this gem: “I know it’s an issue, but what does that mean? That means that 86% of the American people either don’t think it’s relevant to presidential performance or look at whether a person, looking at all the facts, is the best to serve.” In other words, Bill’s personal life doesn’t really matter and has no bearing on his public service.

So after all of Bill and Hillary’s lies, and Bill’s sexually repugnant behavior even while in office, he is still viewed favorably by most Democrats. And it can be rightly surmised that after what Bill and Hillary Clinton have gotten away with, one can hardly blame Trump for believing himself to be just as qualified for office as either of the Clintons. Bill Clinton may be right in his observation that Americans care little about the “personal life” indiscretions of their leaders so long as they like their public service. This may be the best explanation for the two candidates Americans have chosen.