Politics is, by nature, a dishonest, unseemly business.

[Blue_true]

9. Most of the Founders owned slaves, some of them a lot of slaves.

I view that as abhorrent. But during their day, that was the accepted norm, as unfortunate as that sounds. Some made it possible for their slaves to be free upon the death of the slavemaster.

If we evaluate them on today's standards, they were beyond evil men. But when evaluated in the frame of their time renders a far less conclusive verdict.

When looking at Northam, did he grow as a person over 35 years?

When looking at Fairfax, what has been his overall character and dealings with women in private and public? Maybe that helps shed some light on him.

On Herring, my feelings is that he was not the adult that he thought that he was at 19. I know that when I was a college freshman, I certainly was not mature and made mistakes that cause me to cringe today whenever a flashback enters my conscious mind.