Hillary had her episode "under hostile fire" in the Balkans. Paul Ryan had his brilliant career as a marathoner. And we all know about Clinton and Gingrich's serial adultery.

Not all of them do it. George McGovern and Spiro Agnew were both genuine war heroes, and neither brought it up to build himself up in a campaign.

But for the most part, they can't resist it. I do believe anyone who feels the urge to run for public office suffers from some kind of pathology. At least, these days.

It's funny, the ancient Athenians had nothing but contempt for people who made no effort to involve themselves in politics and civic affairs, they called them "idiotoi", ("self-persons")from which we derive our word "idiot". They felt it was the duty of every citizen, particularly a prosperous one, to involve himself in government, just as he was expected to buy weapons and horses and serve in the army or marines and defend the state. Even the impoverished were expected to vote at the assembly, and pull an oar in a war galley if they couldn't afford armour.