(3 of 4)
In theory, right and wrong are divorced from consequence: it is as wicked to steal a dollar as a diamond. In practice, misdeeds are often judged by their scope and outcome. According to Carter's aides, the purloined debate strategy relied significantly on plans for springing facts and numbers on Reagan to make him look forgetful and unpresidential. The value to Carter of that sort of surprise attack is dubious. The magnitude of his defeat, as an incumbent President, reflected a specific rejection of him by the people.
Idealism has an honored place in the traditions that built America. But this country's apparent inability to distinguish between peccadilloes and political atrocities puzzles allies and imperils the nation's being taken seriously by the rest of the world. The Wall Street Journal warned in an editorial last week that "we risk going down in history as the first civilization to strangle itself in a frenzy of ethics." The press and the political system seem to have developed a reflex impulse to discredit every President. Americans want their leaders to be decent men who play fair, but voters know that a measure of cunning, even sleight of hand, can be essential in politics and diplomacy. Moreover, an absolutist piety can have the unintended effect breeding cynicism rather than virtue. Repeated false rectitude about trifling lapses wears out the reflexes for indignation when it is justified.
Easy though it is to make light of the way in which the debate caper was metamorphosed from old news into the summer's hottest story, the consequences could be weighty. Already, the equilibrium has been disrupted between the ideologues and the pragmatists on President Reagan's team. If the affair results in resignations from either faction, the direction of the Reagan Administration could be substantially altered. For Presidents, the loss of a trusted adviser, and with him the skilled advocacy of a viewpoint, is a common experience, but a disruptive one. For Reagan, the effects of departures could reach to the platform that the Republicans run on next year, even to whether he chooses to be the party's candidate. The press corps in Washington is well aware of how the impact of the story may exceed its significance: ABC White House Correspondent Sam Donaldson has been gloating to colleagues that the scandal will keep Reagan from seeking reelection, making him our sixth successive President to be unable to finish two terms.