There has to be a gradual erosion. It takes a while for people to assimilate these things. The public also identifies with Clinton, says Manning Pynn, editorial page editor of The Orlando Sentinel , which called for Clinton's resignation. He speaks to them, and they feel for him, even if they don't like him. . . . The concept of the good of the American people is a lot more abstract.
Polls also show the public holds the media in low esteem.
But editorial opinion may eventually sway the public, says Tom Smith, director of the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. What we're getting in the polls to date is the public's 'top of the head' reaction to it. . . . What will change things further is opinion leadership. Although the New Orleans newspaper waited until August 1974 to call for Nixon's resignation, other newspapers during Watergate did not. But the calls for Clinton to step down came earlier in the scandal process.