Yet one more letter in Sunday's news, denouncing Hillary Clinton as apparently the biggest liar in the history of American
politics. The problem with such statements is that they reflect only opinion, and are clearly biased to the extent
that truth has become the casualty.
A reasonable research effort reveals significantly different
facts than those alleged in the letter. Using
data from a news organization with ties
to a conservative
Midwest newspaper chain shows that evaluating
all statements from candidates (and some
non-candidates just as a point of interest and comparison) from both parties shows some interesting facts regarding
truthfulness in politics, admittedly an oxymoron much of the time. categorizing statements by third party validation lets us
group various candidates' statements.
For simplicity, I grouped them by percentages
of response as: True/Mostly true (T/MT), Mostly false(M/F) and Completely Untrue/Blatant
Lie (C/U) .
T/MT
M/F
C/U
Obama 76% 12% 12%
Clinton 71% 15% 14%
Sanders 68% 17% 15%
Cruz 35% 29%
36%
Trump 24% 16%
60% (!!)
Kasich 67% 15% 18%
Ryan 47% 29%
15%
Palin
44% 15% 41%
The all time winner, however, discounting radio rabble
rousers, is former Congressperson and former
Presidential wannabee Michele Bachmann, whose percentage of either outright or
blatant lies constitutes 62% of her political statements. I find it
illustrative of the state of American politics that one party slanders the
relatively truthful candidates(s) of the other, while generally ignoring their
own truthful office seeker (John Kasich) and lauding the fact that the biggest liar of the lot (Trump)is
close to a nomination for the Presidency.
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