Most Joe Biden - when I see him speak I knows he’s straight talking
Least John Kerry - I don’t think he wavers, but he doesn’t seem convinced of what he’s saying
Off to join the polls in IMHO.
Current or historical?
Most convincing: Jimmy Carter. He was a crappy president, but I believe that his heart is in the right place and that he articulates how he really feels.
Honorary mention:
**Bill Clinton ** - He has a great mixture of charm, eloquence, and intelligence
Least convincing: John Edwards: He seems intelligent enough but I get the feeling that every move he makes is calculated, every word is calibrated. Don’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
Most convincing: Dennis Kucinich. I’ve heard him speak a couple of times; you know he’s saying exactly what he thinks, and you can take it or leave it.
Least convincing: Dick Cheney. I’ve heard him say flat-out lies many times. E.g., claiming “And I assure you, the government had nothing to do with it!” – referring to his personal financial success in the private sector in the '90s, which depended largely on fat government contracts.
Bush doesn’t really qualify for the contest. In Britain, I’ve heard, they say: “George Washington could not tell a lie, Richard Nixon could not tell the truth, and George Bush cannot tell the difference.”
It’s probably a bit a function of my maturity that this is the first time I thought of this, but I currently drive around with a custom bumper sticker reading, “Republican Against Bush”.
I don’t believe basically anything he says, and the more he talks about God, the madder I get. He’s one of my prime candidates for "And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
Since Jimmy isn’t running anymore I won’t vote for him as most convincing. The man never told a lie in his life. So among current politicians I’ll call it a tie between Biden and Dodd. Both would make fine presidents but neither will become president.
For the negative side, Cheney isn’t running so he is disqualified. I have a tie between Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney. I think the only thing that either one of them truly stands for is that they should be elected. Other than that, if the polls say x wins votes, they’re all for x.
I dunno. I never bought that line about lusting in his heart. Just can’t connect the concepts of Jimmy and lust.
That’s surprising because Biden has told some whoppers. I respect Biden because of his experience and knowledge but I can’t say integrity is one of his strengths.
Of the candidates running, I’d say Kucinich is probably the most honest. I don’t agree with a lot of what he’s saying but I believe that he believes it.
And I’d say Romney is the least convincing. He’s flipped his position on so many major issues, it’s like he’s running against himself.
Paul and Kucinich are definitely the current guys that totally, wholeheartedly believe in their message. I’ll echo another poster regarding Hillary and Mitt, both of them clearly spend lots of time planning their words and then trying to erase stuff they previously said.
I’ve always enjoyed listening to Delaware Senator Joe Biden speak. He’s not afraid to make straightforward statements, which is probably why he’ll never make it out of the starting gate for the presidency in our day. The only candidates who ever get nominations are the ones who sit on a fence until they can determine who best to pander to, but Biden has an authority and presence about him that conveys he has a good sense for weighing both sides of an issue, which is very convincing to me. I also recall that he has a strong stance on domestic security and, like me, believes we should be concentrating our efforts on protecting our borders rather than invading the borders of others.
Least convincing? Hillary Clinton. A segment on The Daily Show the other night lampooned her effort to appear lighthearted and humorous during a Fox News interview by laughing almost uproariously at several questions posed to her. I honestly couldn’t tell whether she was trying hard to appear amiable, or barely containing her condescension towards a host on a network that she has an implied political bias against. It seems like a little bit of both, actually, and it’s a good example of why she’s downright scary and unconvincing to me. I almost universally side with the Democratic party, but I’d sooner vote Republican than vote for her.
The few interviews I’ve seen of Biden have convinced me that he’s a pretty straight-shooting guy. I don’t normally lean for Democrats, but I definitely like the guy.
None of which makes him truthful though. “I did not have sex with that woman (I only got a bj from her)” is not an honest statement.
As for the OP, and I confess to not being too familiar with the Republican field yet, other than Giuliani who I was familiar with before 9/11 (and Fred Thompson for his work as the make-believe NYC DA 
), I’d say Kucinich is the most honest with Biden second. Neither HClinton nor Giuliani strikes me as being very straightforward.
Althought he is not technically a politician, I have to say that Fidel Castro is a master at bringing you to his side. If you work in Havana attendance to his speeches is compulsory, and during the special period most of his speeches were about how things were not going to get better, and how we needed to learn to make do with less.
All this from a guy who arrived at the plaza in a caravan of Mercedes benz limousines, and that unlike the crowd was evidently very well fed, in fact during the special period Fidel might have been the fatest person in Cuba. The crowd applauded and cheered every single thing he said, and not everyone, but most people in that crowd were completely sincere in their approval.
Raul Castro on the other hand, could promise everyone an all you can eat buffet, and most people would be left cold.
“Convincing”? It depends what you mean. Persuasive? Charistmatic? Truthful?
But for least convincing, at the moment, I’ll just go with our current mayor, Richard Daley. He said people who are against moving the Children’s Museum to Grant Park hold that position because they don’t want to see minority children in the park. Nobody believes that, including, I’m completely sure, him.
I assume ALL politicians are lying or hiding the negative effects of their proposals until proven otherwise.
Now I didn’t say I thought he was most truthful, just that I find him to very convincing. He’s a great debater.
Would you go so far as to say he’s a master debater?
I’m so, so sorry…