Keller @ Large: Do Really We Care If Politicians Lie To Us?
BOSTON (CBS) - Is it ok for a candidate to lie to get what he or she wants?
It is definitely not illegal in Ohio, now that federal courts have thrown out a state statute outlawing campaign falsehoods, things like fact-free smears of an opponent or made-up endorsements. The headline on the Associated Press story about it: "Political candidates get the ok to lie."
And how about the reality check provided by one attorney who specialized in dishonesty cases. "If a client says, 'I want to lie through my teeth, and as long as I don't defame anybody, can I get away with it?' The answer is... yes."
It seems the greyhounds have already left the starting box when it comes to the expectation that a campaign will be waged honestly.
Ninety-two percent of Donald Trump campaign statements checked by Politifact have ranged from mostly to outrageously false; Hillary Clinton's 49-percent may look better next to that, but it's still half the time.
Ladies and gentlemen, your two major-party front runners.
But defining the word "lie" isn't as easy as it looks.
So maybe Trump and Clinton from time to time cite information to either make themselves look good and their opponents look bad and it turns out to wrong. Ok, maybe much of the time.
Who hasn't passed along false info in this era of the unedited web and my cousin swears this is true on Facebook?
And let's face it - sometimes some of us don't mind being lied to, if the truth isn't what we really want to hear. But we still ought to wonder - if we decide it's ok for our political leaders to lie to us, what will they want to do to us next?
