Gary Hart, a politician running for president in 1988, invited the media to follow him around after he was alleged to be a womanizer. He was quoted as saying, “Follow me around. I don’t care. I’m serious.” Members of the media complied and he was caught having an affair 2 weeks later.

Gary Hart, the Elusive Front-Runner

Photograph by Elliot Erwitt/Magnum

This article appeared in print on May 3, 1987, and is revisited in Matt Bai’s cover story in the September 21, 2014, issue of the magazine.

“Please,” said the frustrated politician on the other side of the Formica breakfast table in a New Hampshire hotel, “keep your mind open to the possibility that I’m not weird.”

Gary Warren Hart was doing something he doesn’t like to do: he was talking about himself, his childhood, his parents, his religious beliefs, his marriage.

It was an infuriating experience for Hart, the leading Democratic Presidential candidate, because his psyche has been probed more often and more deeply than that of any other contender. He has sat for interview after interview … Continue Reading

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/magazine/gary-hart-the-elusive-front-runner.html?searchResultPosition=2