# What elected official most turned out to be a "Trojan Horse"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [October 13, 2008, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713 "2008-10-13T14:23:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2008, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/1 "2008-10-13T14:23:55Z")
That is, a candidate who blatantly lied about their true position to get elected, and then once in office said “Bwa-ha-ha! You FOOLS!”. This doesn’t mean mere hypocracy or a failure to keep promises i.e. “no new taxes”. Rather, someone who deliberately sold the voters a pig in a poke.
I’m putting this for now in GD rather than GQ because although strictly speaking it’s a question it’s bound to raise of lot of controversy.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/2 "2008-10-13T14:30:31Z")
Nixon got elected in 1968 partly on a strongly implied promise to end the Vietnam War (which is why my Dad, writing from Vietnam, persuaded my Mom to vote for him, which they both regretted later). But he never intended to end the war on any terms that could not be considered an American victory. He even, before he was elected, torpedoed the peace talks from behind the scenes. See [_Nixonland,_](http://www.amazon.com/Nixonland-Rise-President-Fracturing-America/dp/0743243021) by Rick Perlstein. Nixon was a curious mixture of idealism and cynicism, deep integrity and deeper dishonesty. But WRT honesty in government, he always took the attitude that “The public will be told what the public needs to be told,” true or not, to serve the national interest.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/3 "2008-10-13T15:07:54Z")
Joe Lieberman comes to mind.
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### Author:  [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/4 "2008-10-13T15:19:30Z")
Compassionate Conservative…I’m a uniter, not a divider…
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/5 "2008-10-13T15:55:31Z")
Not an elected official, but David Souter comes to mind.
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### Author:  [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2008, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/6 "2008-10-13T15:57:30Z")
John Tyler comes to my mind. He was a former Democrat elected as Whig William Henry Harrison’s running mate in 1840. Harrison died a month after his inauguration, and Tyler started moving in a completely different direction, resulting in his being expelled from the Whig party just a few months into his presidency.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/7 "2008-10-13T16:02:52Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> Nixon got elected in 1968 partly on a strongly implied promise to end the Vietnam War (which is why my Dad, writing from Vietnam, persuaded my Mom to vote for him, which they both regretted later). But he never intended to end the war on any terms that could not be considered an American victory. He even, before he was elected, torpedoed the peace talks from behind the scenes. .
_Nixon_ lied!?!:eek: Who would have thunk it?😛
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### Author:  [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/8 "2008-10-13T19:50:05Z")
> [@Icarus](#):
>
> Compassionate Conservative…I’m a uniter, not a divider…
CO2 is a pollutant, and we’re going to regulate that when I get in the oval office!
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/9 "2008-10-13T20:03:44Z")
GW Bush -
Sold as having a responsible, conservative temperment. What we got was 180 degrees off.
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### Author:  [@UnwrittenNocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwrittenNocturne)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2008, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/10 "2008-10-13T21:29:56Z")
Richard Shelby. Elected to the Senate as a Democrat. When the Republicans gained a majority he switched sides. He would have been a dirtbag either way though
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2008, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/11 "2008-10-14T04:46:51Z")
Woodrow Wilson. Wins reelection in 1916 on a neutrality platform and immediately gets us involved in World War I.
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### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2008, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/12 "2008-10-14T05:19:18Z")
[Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_III) (nephew to the late Emperor Napoleon) was elected President of the Second French Republic in 1848. The constitution prevented him from running for a second four-year term, and when the National Assembly refused to amend it to allow him to run for re-election at the end of his first term, he staged a coup and made himself Emperor of the new Second Empire, ruling France for another 18 years, until he was deposed in the wake of France’s crushing defeat by the rising power of Prussia/the German Empire in the Franco-Prussian War.
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### Author:  [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2008, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/13 "2008-10-14T05:26:06Z")
In Canada, there was the time that Stanfield ran, promising to institute wage and price controls in order to tame inflation. Trudeau ran against him, saying “don’t vote for Stanfield, he says he’ll bring in wage controls. Vote for me, I defininitely absolutely will not bring in wage controls!!”. He won, and then instituted wage and price controls.
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2008, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/14 "2008-10-14T05:49:09Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Not an elected official, but David Souter comes to mind.
I knew that Souter would be a moderate on the Court, and I think Bush Sr knew it too.
Eisenhower claimed that Warren being a liberal (and Brennan) was a bitter disappointment to him. I really wonder. Warren was a great California governor, and anyone that studied him would have known that he was bipartisan. And Brennan was an obvious liberal his whole life.
I’ll put in my vote for Gray Davis. I had hoped for a moderate to liberal California governor. Instead we got a retread of Pete Wilson and a duller version of Arnold.
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### Author:  [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2008, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/15 "2008-10-14T05:58:32Z")
> [@Manduck](#):
>
> In Canada, there was the time that Stanfield ran, promising to institute wage and price controls in order to tame inflation. Trudeau ran against him, saying “don’t vote for Stanfield, he says he’ll bring in wage controls. Vote for me, I defininitely absolutely will not bring in wage controls!!”. He won, and then instituted wage and price controls.
If we’re going to talk about Canadian politics, there’s David “I’m going to be Stephen Harper’s worst nightmare!” Emerson who switched parties immediately after being elected to join Stephen Harper’s cabinet.
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### Author:  [@whorfin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whorfin)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/16 "2008-10-14T06:30:46Z")
Seconding Lieberman. IIRC, he explicitly promised in a '06 debate against ned lamont (his opponent for the senatorial seat) that he’d support the democratic candidate for president.
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2008, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/17 "2008-10-14T13:01:13Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#):
>
> John Tyler comes to my mind. He was a former Democrat elected as Whig William Henry Harrison’s running mate in 1840. Harrison died a month after his inauguration, and Tyler started moving in a completely different direction, resulting in his being expelled from the Whig party just a few months into his presidency.
Andrew Johnson fits this description as well. After Lincoln’s assassination, he went so far over to the Democrat side that he thought he would be nominated for president on the Democratic ticket in 1868. In fact he came in second on the first ballot at the Democratic convention, and was bitter about the fact that he felt the Democrats abandoned him.
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2008, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/18 "2008-10-14T13:12:47Z")
Bush, no[nation-building](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/28/politics/main646142.shtml)
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### Author:  [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/19 "2008-10-14T20:56:15Z")
In Nixon’s defense, he did end the Vietnam war.
Woodrow Wilson was re-elected on a promise to keep us out of World War 1.
FDR was elected promising to cut the federal budget and warning about the pernicious effects of welfare. The republicans of 1936 adopted the Democrat platform of 1932 on the grounds that it had not been tried.
In Virginia Mark Warner promised to not raise taxes when he ran for governor and pretty much the first thing he did was raise taxes.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-elected-official-most-turned-out-to-be-a-trojan-horse/467713/20 "2008-10-14T21:42:28Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Not an elected official, but David Souter comes to mind.
What did he lie about?
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