# Politicians, Liars or worse?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-liars-or-worse/41876>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 19, 2000, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-liars-or-worse/41876 "2000-11-19T20:45:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Anachronism](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@Anachronism](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anachronism)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-liars-or-worse/41876/1 "2000-11-19T20:45:08Z")

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The recount in Florida is a perfect example of an issue where your political party should not influence your opinion. Yet the vast majority of Democrats think a hand recount is the correct thing to do and the majority of Republicans think a hand count is less accurate and illegal.

So obviously a good number of politicians are lying? Or do they convince themselves that whatever will help their party is the truth? Isn’t that worse than just a plain liar?

IIRC a Pathological liar repeats a lie until he believes it. Does that apply to politicians in this case? It seems to be different because they are forming an opinion that is best for them politically but claiming it is correct for other reasons. Is their a clinical term for this behavior?  
A Zebra does not change its Spots

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet – Al Gore  
It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.

If you don’t stand for something than you don’t stand for anything. – George W Bush

Either way, we are soooo f\*\*ked.

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**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-liars-or-worse/41876/2 "2000-11-19T20:49:15Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jimshep \*  
> \*\*
> 
> Either way, we are soooo f\*\*ked.
> 
> \*\*

Not “we.” Just this thread.