Who Lies the Most: Republicans or Democrats?

Everyone thinks the other guy is worse

Partisans on both sides are convinced that their opposite numbers are constantly talking "malarkey" (as Joe Biden puts it).

Many on the right are certain that Obama is the most dishonest president ever. "Obama Lies," a rather well-documented blog, catalogues the president's misleading statements under the banner "Liar in Chief." Conservatives everywhere are sure the POTUS lied about Benghazi, and "Obama lied, people died" is a go-to headline phrase for right-leaning op-eds.

When Bush was president, the left continually accused him of "appalling lies" - most notably over WMDs in Iraq.

Meanwhile Romney's presidential campaign became a byword for lying among the liberal-to-mainstream media. Romney lied 917 times during the campaign according to Steve Benen's series "Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity." NYU Prof. Jay Rosen simply called Romney's a "post-truth campaign."

"Lying" is to some extent in the eye of the beholder, since if you like a politician you're often willing to overlook a misleading remark as a mere mistatement or gaffe. And that makes it probably impossible to estimate Republican and Democratic rates of lying with any mathematical precision.

Do you ever trust political leaders outside of your own party?

[MBernard]

Ok, let me put it this way for you: republicans have NEVER said something that's true. Understand?

[FFX_VA]

Now that's a flat out lie, you must be a politician

[MBernard]

@FFX_VA haha you caught me. Ok, let me rephrase what I said: Politicians from either side have NEVER said something that's true, understand?

[Thegrif]

@MBernard at least not all true

[ACTSmom]

Politicians of any race, creed or national origin are never 100% truthful. Neither is the media. So that leaves us, and I have doubts about you!

[stepped_in_it]

@MBernard That's better. Joke: Do you know whats better than ALL politicians at the bottom of the ocean? Answer: When they're handcuffed to a LAWYER!(But, that would also be polluting the ocean...)

[FFX_VA]

If their lips are moving... I don't trust any of them!

[Rocker]

A good number of 'em are lawyers - that should be a tip-off.

[bobrob]

Neither lie much. They simply embellish or leave out salient points that the other has made.

[Rocker]

And if they get caught it was "Mis-stated" or was "Mis-interpreted" like everybody else was too stupid to understand it in the first place.

[silverflashh]

Goes both ways. This is politics though. However, this time around, I believe Obama ran a less deceitful campaign. I hope Romney was just an anomaly to never be repeated.

[Dan_Tien]

I don't believe that either side has a monopoly on the truth. There is a great deal of self serving deception going on in American politics. On the other hand, I don't believe that the American public has an absolute "right to know" either. The prevailing attitude toward government secrecy is akin to expecting a poker player to continually announce the cards in his hand to the audience while in the midst of a high stakes game.

[lawnmowrman]

How do you answer a question like this when the difference in number of lies between the two is so small that it would take a computer to make the final judgment?

[Cool_voter]

Not sure where your info comes from..

[Politic-n]

"Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed regularly and for the same reason!" Mark Twain - Anyone who trusts a politican must believe pro wrestling is not staged either.

[bsking]

I have never had sex with that woman Monica Lewinsky

we had nothing to do with Vince Foster's death , we were here the whole time

the attack in Libya was because of the YouTube video

I thought Mary Jo got out out of the car after it plunged into the water like I did

the Muslim Brotherhood is a mostly secular organization and we don't need to worry about them.. they have no intention of becoming involved in the politics of Egypt

Mitt Romney hates dogs and will give your wife cancer

Osama bin Laden is dead and GM is alive
where do ing everything possible for the poor people effected by sandy

no one asked for backup from the embassy in Ben Ghazi

no 1 told the former seals to stand down

this could go on and on and on...
the winner is the left by far.. lying about their agenda is the only way to further it.

[Zazziness]

So I take it you're trying to prove Republicans lie the most by repeating some of their favorite campaign whoppers?

[bsking]

@Zazziness maybe you should reread that... do I have to put the names to the quotes for you?

[Buckfan4life2]

If you are a politican you are a liar. Slick Willy wins hands down as the biggest but the worst liar ever. I knew the day he said he tried pot but didn't inhale, that I would not vote for this man. Atleast Bush admitted useing coke in collage and the WMD in Iraq, well the whole country belived he did which I still think he did because he had 6 months to get rid of them. The invasion of Iraq will be proven later in history that Bush did the right thing. Saddam was a madman and your a fool to think otherwise. But democrats by far are the bigest liars ever. I have never trusted a democrat president and trust Obama less than all combined. This man has been a big lie from day one and can't believe that the American people has fallen for this corrupt,anti American president. We are destined to be doomed and its just in a matter of time. Just you wait and see.

[Zazziness]

@bsking No, thanks. I know who said "Osama bin Laden" is dead. Seal Team 6. And they aren't liars. See, you've mixed up a few quotes of actual lies with rabid extremist web site's conspiracy theories. And in those cases, the source is the liar.(Or the paranoid tin-foil hatters, in any case.)

[Zazziness]

@Buckfan4life2 Bush admitted he abused coke in college because there were way too many witnesses for his campaign to have even half a hope it would stay hidden. Ditto his alcoholism. And his failed attempts at business.

[DogLady_1]

As the Buffalo Springfield song goes: "Nobody's right if everybody's wrong..."

[DARSB]

Or the Grateful Dead, "I ain't often right but I've never been wrong."

[MikeC]

The republicans lie their azzes off to protect the wealthiest 1%. There is no lie they will not tell to protect the weathiest 1%. The wealthy are starting to come out in huge numbers against the republicans. Be logical and think about it. The GOP/Tea people believe that you should not let the "temporary tax break" for millionaires and billionaires expire. They believe that during a recession, the poor and middle class should pay more and get less. The crock of lies the repugs have sold this country has almost destroyed it.

[Zazziness]

I was going to say "equally" till the article reminded my of the Bush/Cheney administration. And then that leapfrogged me back to the Nixon days. So overall, I'm going to have to give the Big Fat Whopper Award to the Republicans.

[mtkopf]

Thank you for reminding all of us about Nixon. It would have been a travesty for him not to be mentioned in this thread.
Some of the posers here, oh I mean posters, are so partisan that they probably believe he was framed.

[Bobolinsky]

"Is"

[Bobolinsky]

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[DogLady_1]

LOL! I knew it! Someone brings up lies that led our nation to war, and someone else brings up "I did not sleep with that woman"! Yes, I can see where a stained blue dress can damage our national security and international trade just as much as going to war on false pretenses... yes, both of those lies are identical in the damage they did... I mean as soon as Clinton denied sleeping with Lewinski, I thought, "Wow, this going to be a very long war and many of our brave servicepeople will die because of it." NOT! LOL!

[Bobolinsky]

It depends on what the meaning of the abbreviation "WMD" is.

[martydotcom]

site won't open to final page of your comment an hour ago... just hangs loading comments on both phone and PC

[DogLady_1]

Yes, I trust politicians outside my own party... since I have no party, I judge each politicians by their own merits... Some are honest, many lie and many believe what they are saying to be true. So, when a politician or a pundit says something, I go to task trying to dig up the truth about the matter, and then form my own opinion... I am anti-GroupThink... "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." --George Orwell

[Republican5001]

Democrats are the ruination of America.

[Waynestew]

I think all politicians are deceptive. I think Republicans lie more. More Democrats come from law school backgrounds. Therefore they know how to imply things and deceive without exactly lying. More Republicans tend to come from the business or financial world soctgey don't tend to have these type of skills. Therefore when they want to deceive they flat out lie.

[ACTSmom]

LOL! Deceit:

ambidexterity, ambidextrousness, artifice, cheating, chicane, chicanery, cozening, craft, craftiness, cunning, deceitfulness, deception, defrauding, dirty dealing, dirty pool, dishonesty, dissemblance, dissimulation, double-dealing, duplicity, entrapping, fraud, fraudulence, guile, hypocrisy, imposition, overreaching, pretense, slyness, smoke and mirrors, trapping, treachery, trickery, two-facedness, two-timing, underhandedness

[Waynestew]

@ACTSmom Excactly. Notice that none of these say lie.

[ACTSmom]

@Waynestew ....lol! Semantics, it's all semantics. We know most of those synonyms mean "lie"...

[Waynestew]

@ACTSmom Sorta, but here's a difference:
A man robs a store. I saw who did it from across the street, but was not "in" the store. If asked
Q: Was he at the store?
A1, lie: No
A2, Deceptive: I was not in the store.

As you can see from the two answers one would be a flat out lie the other would be "true" but misleading and not really answering the question. If someone accepted the second answer without pressing me for more details I could very easily help the Robber get away with it.
And if later someone figures out that I did "see" the robbery, All I have to say is I never lied, I was not "in" the store when I saw the robbery. Repubsctend to give the first anwser Dems the last.

Man I'd make a good politician. LOL! I wonder how corruption looks on me.

[ACTSmom]

@Waynestew ...yep, you've learned well!

[sabbatical]

- Who will win if Democrats and Republicans kill each other in a street shoot-out?
- American people.

[WMCOL]

Republican leadership pushes an agenda that if considered true even their base would not accept it, while Democrats when true agenda is known is always more acceptable to the most people. So Republicans must lie and misrepresent the truth to have their agenda accepted. Democrats don't have to and don't, at least nothing like to the egregious extent that Republicans do. Recent election is proof.

[UnCommonBoston]

Both parties lie. Some people lie more than others and if there is $$$ motivation or sex, people are more likely to lie. Once upon a time we could count on the press to dig up the truth, now they take the lies and expand them. They quote each other as sources and spin wild tales of fancy. The Drudge Report is a good source of this type of fiction. I wish for honesty in our polititians or at the very least a press we can count on the dig up the truth. (although the press is very good at uncovering sex scandals.)

[DARSB]

Sometimes I have trouble determining if a given politician is lying or is just wrong.

And then I have to wonder which one is worse.:-)

[Denizen_Kate]

Is this a trick question? As an independent, I consider them all to be liars.