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None of that is going to matter if the media chooses to make an issue of it. If it brings down a state AG, they'll say it's fair to bring down the President, even as they say sexual misconduct on the job (the Oval Office is a workplace) is a private matter.

I don't have much use for drunks. My nearest cousin was a drunk, his funeral is tomorrow. He spent the last month in a stupor and ultimately shot himself, and what is going on in the family in the aftermath of that is no picnic. He has hurt many more than himself here, his drinking and the action it brought about has left a hole in our hearts.

So I'm not saying a drinking problem shouldn't be addressed (and it seems as though the President addressed his), but absent other serious character flaws, I wouldn't treat a first offense DUI as a blemish serious enough to oust a politician or to not consider voting for them. In Oregon we see them now and then from both parties get nabbed up in the Salem area, and it almost seems the media conspires to ruin them at that point. Most of us know and work with people who have had one (and no, I have never had one), and they have paid the consequences and moved on. It's what they learn from it and how they deal with it in the future that matters, it can actually improve one's character. I know some good examples of that myself, and who knows, one at the right time might have helped my cousin, but he was always "lucky" and never got caught. Most states, I think, see that possibility of redemption, else they wouldn't have the graduated scale of offense level and penalties for first, second, and subsequent offenses. A first offense wouldn't and shouldn't cause most people to lose a job that doesn't require driving.

And being in the state car doesn't matter. It is as serious and potentially deadly no matter who owns the car. She should pay for the damage, if any, to the car, along with the other civil responsibilities she appears to have accepted, then let the voters weigh that along with all the other character and job performance factors at the next election. She sounds to me like someone who should never have been elected in the first place, and if this event tips the scale and prevents a reelection, I wouldn't have a problem with that.