“But she stands by him still. So, she deserves everything that’s coming to her.”

I am a staunch liberal and always have been, but I agree with this statement.

The Lewinsky scandal is my first memory of politics, the first time I really noticed that anything political existed. And at age 10, I couldn’t understand why Hillary Clinton would stay with someone who had cheated on her, especially so publicly. After everything that followed, it seemed like such a terrible message to women that you should stay married to someone who had dragged you through the mud like that.

Of course now I understand that she had political reasons for maintaining the relationship. I get that. I forgave her, and I voted for her.

Still, I’m just a little bit glad that she wasn’t our first female president. Don’t get me wrong, Trump is the last person I want in the Oval Office. But having a former president’s wife as the first female president? It doesn’t exactly prove that women can do anything without a man.

And having the first female president be a woman who stayed with a man who wasn’t loyal to her? Every relationship is different, and I’m sure there are women out there with solid reasons for staying with men who weren’t faithful…but almost two decades later, I still agree with my 10-year-old self. Having a woman in power who stayed with a cheater, even if she had reasons, doesn’t send a great message to women.