# If Every Politician That Told A Bold Faced Lie.. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 6, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-politician-that-told-a-bold-faced-lie/258552 "2004-08-06T01:51:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-politician-that-told-a-bold-faced-lie/258552/1 "2004-08-06T01:51:35Z")
If Every Politician That Told A Bold Faced Lie dropped dead the week before the November election… Who would be left to vote for/against ? ? ? And in the case of grand deception ? ? ? ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-politician-that-told-a-bold-faced-lie/258552/2 "2004-08-06T01:57:01Z")
…if every person who told a bold-faced lie, who would be left to vote? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-politician-that-told-a-bold-faced-lie/258552/3 "2004-08-06T02:11:55Z")
Almost everybody has told some boldfaced (I still prefer the term “barefaced”) lies in their life, and politicians do probably tell more than most. However, I don’t think that means that we’re not allowed to condemn politicians for lying; “everybody else does it” is not an adequate ethical defense. Among other things, I think it matters what the barefaced lie is about, how deceptive it is, and how serious the issues at stake are. (If you were actually attempting to debate a different aspect of the question (e.g., whether there are some politicians who never lie and if so, how many of them there are), feel free to ignore the above. I couldn’t really tell from your OP what the debate was.) ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-politician-that-told-a-bold-faced-lie/258552/4 "2004-08-06T03:32:46Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Almost everybody has told some boldfaced (I still prefer the term “barefaced”) lies in their life And I always thought it was “bald-faced.” I’m not 100% sure if that makes sense, but that’s what I thought. I think of a “boldfaced” lie as something like: **I am really Bill Gates in disguise, and I plan to buy the SDMB and turn it into a Windows tech forum.** As for the topic at hand, well, if John McCain can go from “crooked senator in the pocket of S&Ls” to “straight-talker beloved of conservatives and liberals alike” in two decades, who’s going to remember even the big lies in a few years, unless they still directly impact the body politic? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-politician-that-told-a-bold-faced-lie/258552/5 "2004-08-06T03:33:50Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > almost everybody has told some boldfaced (I still prefer the term “barefaced”) lies [nitpick] The google concesus heavily favors “Bald faced lie”: **Phrase Number of hits** Bald faced lie 7,690 Bold faced lie 3,570 Boldfaced lie 1,390 Baldfaced lie 1,120 Barefaced lie 781 Bare faced lie 729 [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-politician-that-told-a-bold-faced-lie/258552/6 "2004-08-06T06:12:39Z")
In a related vein, how about if we had a federal law making it a felony for any politician to knowingly make a false or misleading statement to the public? Would that help matters any?