time, lost 20 points of his public credibility, of his job approval because of one issue. trading with the enemy. right. when it came to the issue of diverting the funds to the contras, it didn t cost him a point. people already knew that s where he stood. he broke his campaign promise. not to deal with the enemy. the reason he was elected is because of the hostage takers over in the middle east. he was then caught trading them guns, trying to get hostages out which is exactly what that only cost him mees didn t cost him a point. he was right to get it out. even if he handled that perfectly because of what you just said, they would have taken a beating on iran contra. on some level the hapdling of it is marginal. you can t make a bad story worse. if it s bad, it s bad. you can t make it worse. you re wrong, john. if it had gotten out, if they d been caught shifting that money to the contras, they would have been dead in the water. it probably would have been impeachable.
trading with the enemy. right. when it came to the issue of diverting the funds to the contras, it didn t cost him a point. people already knew that s where he stood. he broke his campaign promise. not to deal with the enemy. the reason he was elected is because of the hostage takers over in the middle east. he was then caught trading them guns, trying to get hostages out which is exactly what that only cost him mees didn t cost him a point. he was right to get it out. even if he handled that perfectly because of what you just said, they would have taken a beating on iran contra. on some level the hapdling of it is marginal. you can t make a bad story worse. if it s bad, it s bad. you can t make it worse. you re wrong, john. if it had gotten out, if they d been caught shifting that money to the contras, they would have been dead in the water. it probably would have been impeachable. thank you, jonathan alter. good luck with the book. lenny davis, good to have you on. th