# Most trusted living American? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033 "2004-08-29T01:52:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/41 "2004-08-31T03:11:48Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Trustworthiness in this context I take to mean someone who you’ll believe what he/she says. I already added my name to the Koop list, but I’d like to add it again, for the reasons mentioned by **Askia** @ 2:09 AM yesterday (Sunday). > When he gives advice, I’ll listen. > … Ah, you replied to \*\*astorian \*\* with the same answer I was going to give. I too think the simplest way to define “trust” in this context is that you would believe what the person says. Do you trust the Secretary of Defense? Do you trust Fox News? Do you trust a documentary filmaker with a partisan axe to grind? Dr. Koop is looking better and better the more I think about it. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/42 "2004-08-31T03:26:23Z")
I trust Bill Cosby, and Kurt Loder, and I do trust Oprah. I don’t always agree with her, but I do trust her. I don’t think Oprah would deliberately lie or bullshit me. I was going to say Mr. Rogers, but I remembered again that he’s dead and it hurt my heart again. And then I realized how precisely my list dates me. 🙂 Can I trust Jocelyn Elders too? She seemed like a stand-up kind of girl. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/43 "2004-08-31T03:35:54Z")
[QUOTE=Master Wang-Ka] I’d trust Bob Keeshan aka Captain Kangaroo; he could’ve become a rich, rich man by exploiting his audience properly; instead, he stood on his principles, and it cost him his show. He’s dead now. QUOTE] I didn’t know that-what’s the story? Mark down yet another who immediately thought of Jimmy Carter. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/44 "2004-08-31T04:40:23Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > I’d trust Bob Keeshan aka Captain Kangaroo; he could’ve become a rich, rich man by exploiting his audience properly; instead, he stood on his principles, and it cost him his show. He’s dead now. **Wang** , if we’re expanding trustworthiness to include “sticking by your principles and not selling out” have I got a doozy for YOU. Hell, this is better than my offhand thumbs up for Koop. _Calvin and Hobbes_ creator Bill Watterson. THINK about it. Here’s a man who stood to make many, many millions _monthly_ merchandising his two biggest creations into the usual slew of plush toy-tie ins and calendars, T-shirts, coffee mugs and bumper stickers. And he would not do it. He did not sell out. And he continued to stick to his principles and battled his syndicate for YEARS. I’ve read his essays in his C&H Tenth Anniversary Book and believe that everything he wrote about the state of comic strip art in newspapers today are 100% dead-on. In an industry built on golf jokes, anonymous assistants doing the work of the so-called creator on the strip and retread jokes, Watterson focussed on wonder. Then he did the unthinkable and retired at the top of his game. He’s the one person mentioned in this thread that, as much as I admired his strip and talent, I’d be nervous as hell standing in his actual presence. Granted, he had an anti-technology bent that made some of his strips worthy shills for the Sierra Club, and his intense private nature is awfully frustrating since I want to know more biographical information about him, but you cannot find fault his skill or talent or knack for making wonders work. Watterson is one guy I’d trust implicitedly that his motive for doing anything artistic is the sheer love of the task and act of creation. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/45 "2004-08-31T07:04:58Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > How? He’s not funny when he’s trying to be serious, and he’s not funny when he’s trying to be comical! You can tell when he’s trying to be serious and when he’s trying to be comical, so it must be working on _some_ level. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/46 "2004-08-31T14:15:20Z")
It made me smile to come in here and see how many other people agree with me on Bob Keeshan. You cannot mess with that level of integrity. Plus he’s a decorated Marine at Iwo Jima. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/47 "2004-09-01T13:31:45Z")
[Bob Keeshan](http://www.snopes.com/military/keeshan.htm) was a Marine but he was not at Iwo Jima and he never saw combat. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/48 "2004-09-01T14:06:37Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I think John McCain is pretty well-trusted. Unless you lost your life’s savings in the S&L scandal. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/49 "2004-09-01T19:14:22Z")
Funny, it was doctors that came to mind for me… Denton Cooley Michael DeBakey Red Duke (although he is rumored to be a “player”). ---
**Author:** ![Mongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@Mongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mongo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/50 "2004-09-01T20:36:26Z")
How about Brian Lamb of C-Span. ---
**Author:** ![RainGrowsBrite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@RainGrowsBrite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RainGrowsBrite)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/51 "2004-09-01T20:51:54Z")
Bill Cosby was the first person to pop into my mind. I couldnt imagine him lying. You know who else strikes me as extremely trust worthy. Someone who wouldnt lie or cheat or be fake… Elton John, I know I know, he isnt American but he popped into my head as well. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/52 "2004-09-01T21:10:00Z")
> [@RainGrowsBrite](#): > > You know who else strikes me as extremely trust worthy. Someone who wouldnt lie or cheat or be fake… Elton John, I know I know, he isnt American but he popped into my head as well. Well, once he came out – I guess we’re forgiving him the whole marriage thing? ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033/53 "2004-09-01T23:38:21Z")
The OP doesn’t ask for obscure but trustworthy people, but for the most trusted person in America. Someone who’s trusted by the most people, americans I guess? Doesn’t actually _say_ that, does it. Otherwise we could toss in **Bill Clinton**. So, from what I’ve seen here so far, It’d be Carter or Dr Koop. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-trusted-living-american/262033.md?page=2)