It's better than any soap opera. The public can't identify with the incredible slaughter that's going on in Uganda, for example. It's just beyond our ken to think of drafting little kids into the army and killing them if they won't cooperate. He got the adultery vote. People in power expect to get laid.
Nobody's all good or all bad.
We're the only species that rationalizes. So politicians can rationalize what it takes to get into office, in order to do good things once they get there. That's always been the case. It's part of the human drama that there are these imperfectionist streaks in us. And, you know, the desire to become the leader of the Western world can be a pretty strong motivation to rationalize minor infractions of ethics.