This is not the typical foundation funded by family wealth earned by an industrialist or financier. This foundation was funded almost entirely by donors, and to the extent anyone in the Clinton family “earned” the money, it was largely through speaking fees for former President Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton when she was not secretary of state. This dependence on donations — a scenario remarkably similar to that of many political campaigns — means that the motivations of every single donor will be questioned whenever a President Clinton does anything that could conceivably benefit such donors.

Removing Bill Clinton from the foundation, and leaving Chelsea in place, as the foundation currently intends to do if Mrs. Clinton wins, does not solve the problem. Such an arrangement not only suggests a strong possibility of Bill’s and Hillary’s returning after a Hillary Clinton administration is over, but also that the foundation is being used to further Chelsea’s career and financial ambitions. The truth may be the other way around. But truth matters little in Washington, particularly when one group of politicians and their supporters accuses another of being “unethical.”

This may be a difficult choice for the Clintons, but the answer is obvious. The family should promise now that if Hillary is elected president, all of the Clinton family members will step down from all positions with the foundation and they will not return. The foundation should continue to go about its business, but the Clintons should do something else. And in the meantime, between now and the election, the foundation should immediately suspend all fund-raising and acceptance of donations, not just foreign donations, as it has already done.

As for Chelsea Clinton, anti-nepotism laws, strengthened after President Kennedy appointed his brother Robert as attorney general, could prevent her mother from appointing her to some of the highest government positions. But she could give her mother informal advice, and there are a great many government jobs for which she would be eligible. She does not need the Clinton Foundation to succeed in life.

Millions of American voters will want to know whether Hillary Clinton really wants this job, which is the highest office in a government that spends more money in a single day than the entire net worth of the Clinton Foundation.

I’m a Republican, but I believe that Hillary Clinton is the only qualified major party candidate in the race and she should become president. Yet to win, and certainly to succeed as president, she needs to demonstrate that she understands how much appearances matter, as well as facts and law, and that the president should not unnecessarily open herself up to attack.