L’affaire Gary Hart was a whole lot of things: a circus, a tabloid bonanza, the best TV movie not made for E! or for Lifetime, a pain for the press, and a career-ending event for a possible president — who never regained his political footing and has lived in a void ever since. But it was for us all a lost opportunity; a chance for a debate on private affairs and public elections and on how, when, and if the personal matters should become public. And if so, when, and what lines should be drawn.

It was Hart’s view, author Matt Bai says, that the “when” would be “never,” that his private acts were as relevant to his political life as a physical birthmark, and that “what did or did not happen with Donna Rice or any other woman was nobody’s goddamn business but his and his wife’s.”