In September of 1991, Bill Clinton summoned a group of Democratic operatives to a quality

in in Washington, D.C. Clinton was the governor of Arkansas and he was exploring a run for

president.

The group discussed Clinton's potential platform and what his campaign might look like.

Then Clinton brought up a sensitive subject, his reputation as a serial womanizer.

I know you're all concerned about this, he said.

Clinton had considered running for president once before and the run up to the 1988 race.

His chief of staff had helped talk him out of it by showing him a list of women he was

rumored to have been involved with.

It was not a short list.

Four years later, Clinton told his guests at the quality in that this time he had a plan

for how to deal with accusations of infidelity.

If the issue were to come up during the 92 campaign, he would be straightforward.

He would say that yes, he and his wife, Hillary Rotten Clinton, had run into some trouble

earlier in their marriage, but it was now behind them.

That would be the line.

The past was the past.

Clinton seemed so convincing that he even won over a guy who had worked for Gary Hart, the

Democrat whose presidential campaign had gotten blown up by a sex scandal in 1987.

That's how enthralling Clinton was, how talented he seemed, how seductive.

Here's journalist Ruth Marcus, who covered Clinton's presidency for the Washington Post.

He was exciting both intellectually because he was full of ideas, full of policy would

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