(CNN) Let's get these two things out the way: First, the overriding and unfortunate lesson of recent American politics is that if presidential candidates and presidents accused of sexual misconduct just stay the course, they'll either get elected or survive in office. There's a Democrat named Clinton and a Republican named Trump who bear that out.

Second, it's also true that the country is changing; the way powerful men are able to treat women has changed, irrevocably. You can feel it happening over the past weeks as women come forward with stories of the way men treated them, from Harvey Weinstein and Roy Moore to Al Franken and George H.W. Bush.

Now, it is also true that it can be uncomfortable, to say the least, to apply the standards of today to the situations of yesterday.

Uncomfortable is an understatement for Democrats who want to encourage women but also defend the icon of their recent, tortured past.

So it is perhaps inevitable to see Democrats who praise and laud the Clinton administration say that Bill Clinton should probably have resigned the presidency when he was impeached for lying and narrowly escaped being removed from office during a dramatic trial in the Senate.

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