'Favors and Freebies' Brought Down German President

German President Christian Wulff, who resigned on Friday hasn't been prosecuted for any kind of corruption, but he already fell short of being what the BBC calls "a moral authority for the nation" just by opening himself up to messy allegations of back-room favors.

German President Christian Wulff, who resigned on Friday hasn't been prosecuted for any kind of corruption, but he already fell short of being what the BBC calls "a moral authority for the nation" just by opening himself up to messy allegations of back-room favors. A charge that Wulff took a home loan from a businessman's wife in 2008 that he failed to acknowledge has been plaguing him for years, and now other allegations of impropriety are piling up. The New York Times described "vacations with rich friends and a series of favors and freebies that may not have been illegal but were certainly unseemly." The president's role is "largely ceremonial, to serve as a moral authority for the nation," the BBC wrote, so even though Wulff hasn't actually been found guilty of corruption, he's flubbed the job just by looking bad.