Feb 12, 2008 -- As the presidential hopefuls jockeyed for position in advance of the Super Tuesday primaries, a group of scholars and commentators delved into the ethics of presidential power at an all-day conference sponsored by the Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University, held at the Center for Jewish History on January 30. The answer to the question in the conference’s title--“Ethics and Character in the US Presidency: Is Ethical Leadership Possible in the 21st Century?”—was a tentative, hopeful “yes” for Robert Dallek, a renowned historian of American presidents and emeritus professor of history at UCLA. But he began his featured address on a skeptical note that struck at the heart of the conflict between power and morality: “[W]henever a man has cast a longing eye on [power],” he said, quoting Thomas Jefferson, “a rottenness begins in his conduct.” Whether it is hiding personal health problems or wrongdoing in their administrations, deception has been all too common a feature of the post-Civil War presidency, said Dallek, the author of numerous books including the bestseller An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy and the recently published Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power. “They have crossed ethical lines in the conviction that it was necessary to assure their victory in getting to the Oval Office or in implementing policies that they considered essential both to the national well-being and their reputations as effective and even great presidents,” said Dallek, whose speech was co-sponsored by the Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf Scholar-in-Residence Program at Stern College for Women. He cataloged a litany of ethical breaches in presidential administrations, from Woodrow Wilson’s refusal to resign after suffering a major stroke to Bill Clinton’s impeachment after lying under oath. History plays a major role in the public’s perception of presidential conduct, evidenced by Richard Nixon’s decision to stay in Vietnam until after his reelection in 1972. “It is one thing to deceive the country about a policy that provoked so much contemporary opposition but ultimately benefited the nation,” Dallek said. “It is another thing entirely to have misled the country in support of a mistaken war that cost so many lives with so little national gain.” Dallek’s speech echoed the remarks of other noted scholars who spoke earlier in the day. Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia University School of Journalism and contributing writer for The New Yorker, said that "a moralistic view of the presidency undermines ethical leadership" by creating unrealistic expectations of a politics that transcends partisan and interest-group conflicts. Several commentators agreed that there can be no one simple answer to the question of what is ethical for a president. Actions that are necessary to protect national security or to save lives would not be acceptable to win an election or to help a campaign contributor. William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former senior domestic policy advisor to President Clinton, said that there was a broad consensus that because human beings are morally flawed, politics is “a dangerous area with special ethical challenges.” It would therefore be unrealistic to expect absolute ethical leadership, he concluded, but it is possible to get more moral leadership than we have had in the past. Searching for positive lessons in the current administration, Dallek said George W. Bush’s “secretiveness, which has done more to undermine than serve his presidency, may well encourage future chief executives to be more transparent with the public and more cautious about abusing their powers. Moreover, the rise of a more aggressive media, which nowadays doggedly tracks presidential misdeeds, may also make presidents more cautious about deceiving the public.” Other notable speakers at the conference included Rabbi Norman Lamm, Chancellor of YU; Rabbi Shalom Carmy, assistant professor of Bible at YU; Eric Alterman, professor of journalism at CUNY and columnist for The Nation; and Barbara Kellerman, the James McGregor Burns Lecturer in Leadership, Harvard University. The conference was part of a yearlong series on ethics, politics and the 2008 elections, spearheaded by the Center for Ethics.