What politician/opinion leader do you most trust?

[Stinky The Clown]

Not who you would vote for. Not who you think ought to be running for president. Not who you voted for last time.

Who do you think is the most honest broker of policy and information?

Who do you simply trust when s/he speaks?

[Captain Hilts]

1. Henry Waxman. nt

[jobycom]

35. He's long been one of the pols I respected most. nt

[polichick]

2. Jimmy Carter

[cobalt1999]

23. Ditto.

Probably the only completely honest president we've ever had.

If Jimmy Carter denies or confirms something, I believe him.

[polichick]

27. Just one example is his 1977 address to the nation about energy...

Watched it recently on YouTube and every word holds up today. It's excrutiating!

[jobycom]

36. And there was this video...

It's a joke, but I always liked it.
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/ask-president-carter/2367/

I agree about Carter. He was a different type of president. I keep hoping for another like him, but so far I've been disappointed. I saw some of him in Gore, but alas, we were robbed. May Bush rot in Hell.

[cobalt1999]

37. It'd be nice to have a president we'd make fun of for being too smart again.

Compare that with today's White House embarrassment.

[polichick]

48. LOL - too funny! And then we have McLame, who "takes pride in being ignorant." :)

[saltpoint]

3. Joan Didion and Gore Vidal.

[jobycom]

4. Nobody. There are three people who can make me reconsider anything I believe.

But even then I may not agree with them. Carter, Gore, Jesse Jackson.

But I don't trust anyone implicitly. I just listen to what they (anyone) says and analyze it on its own merits, to decide whether it makes sense, is believable, and whether I agree with it. I think any time I hear anyone say anything, my first thought isn't "Is this true?" but "Why are they saying this?"

[emilyg]

10. I like your choices very much.

[jobycom]

14. Thanks. I wish there were more...

But they'll do.

I only voted for two of them, though. I was too young to vote for Carter. :(

[emilyg]

19. I had the pleasure of working for Jessie.

Met Carter in an elevator. Never met Gore - would like to.

[jobycom]

25. Carter was the one who got me interested in politics, even though I couldn't vote for him.

Jackson got me interested again. I had voted and paid attention, but until him, I hadn't seen anyone I thought of as more than a manager to run things.

I always liked Gore, but didn't really fall for him until the convention in 2000. Until then, I had believed, or at least worried about, a lot of the accusations made at him, and while I knew most weren't true, I still figured there was probably some weakness that all these rumors proved. After I watched him at the convention, and watched Bill Clinton talk about him, I knew I'd been had. I knew from hearing him, and watching his eyes, that he was one of the real people, like Carter or Jackson, who was doing it because of what he believed, and that all the stuff about him was wrong. I wasn't sure that every single story was a lie, but I knew that the media had created an image that was completely fabricated about him.

I grew up around sociopaths and liars, and am good at spotting them, usually. I see a lot of politicians that I like say things I know are lies or spin. A lot of people here fall for it, and I don't care, but I don't believe them. It always bothers me more when I see someone I know is telling the truth get called a liar. That's probably half the fights I get in around here. :)

So you met two of my hereos? :yourock:

[emilyg]

30. Yes

On the funny side - my first thought was Carter is as short as I am. I was working in a building that had a radio station. Carter and his "protection" got on the elevator with me. Guess I look safe.

[jobycom]

32. That's funny. I saw Gore once, in 92, with Clinton.

He was at UTexas for a speech. I had seen the speech enough, so I figured out where the bus would arrive, and waited there for him. There were about twenty people, so it was a small crowd. The bus pulled up, and Clinton got off, surrounded by Secret Service guys, and marched on through to the door. I waited for Gore, and finally realized, a moment before Clinton ducked through the door, that the SS guy behind him in the Navy suit was Gore! They weren't kidding when they talked about his posture and demeanor being stiff!

[Taverner]

5. Myself

Other than that, everyone else is a mystery ;)

[jobycom]

6. Pfshh. I don't even agree myself all the time.

And many here would say I shouldn't.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. I have to disagree with you on this one. n/t

[Taverner]

18. Reality is a construct that can never be ultimately discerned.

[jobycom]

26. I think that means that Taverner

agrees I shouldn't believe myself. :rofl:

[PATRICK]

34. Many good people

who can be trusted to be good even when their judgment is bad or their actions compromised. Several of these trustworthy people have cost lives, left people in suffering or otherwise lost to the dark side without "getting it".

You would instinctively trust a great many of our Dem leaders, and some DUers swear by the few seemingly trustworthy Repubs which convinces me to doubt the judgment of those people on DU, McCain being one of those guys in 2000.

Everyone, even the Dalai Lama falls short in the wisdom category and the practical encounter with the crap. Few people, even believers, would actually trust God to solve the problems and problem makers and the masses' problems we have now. Yet we all have to trust the good in this imperfect world, and distrust the inherently deceitful hype of "perfection". The cause of distrust is always the same, the incapacity of putting down the false and uniting the best of the most.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. None

[anitar1]

8. I'll go with Gore Vidal. Can't think of another person and

certainly not a politician. They all lie most of the time.

[ColbertWatcher]

11. DENNIS KUCINICH! n/t

[wildbilln864]

28. Kucinich! nuff said.

[underseasurveyor]

42. I'll third that Kucinich and add Gore Vidal to my list n/t

[harun]

12. Kucinich, Conyers, Obama, Moore, Carter

(on edit added Carter)

[Captain Hilts]

49. A candidate running for office?

Obama? FISA?

[stillcool]

13. Dennis.

[tannybogus]

15. Will D. Campbell

Read up on him. too much to list. I'd listen to him anytime.

[Rowdyboy]

16. It once was John Edwards so take my opinion with a grain of salt....

Who do I trust? Walter Mondale. Wes Clark. Tom Harkin. Jim Webb.

[norepubsin08]

17. kucinich

[ColbertWatcher]

20. Barbara Lee. n/t

[shraby]

21. Russ Feingold

[Captain Hilts]

22. Yeah, too honest to run for president! I decided to give Waxman some deserving dap. nt

[Solly Mack]

24. I can't think of anyone

hmmm...

let me think on that some more

[scarletwoman]

29. Bill Moyers & Gore Vidal, sorta. Kurt Vonnegut & Bill Hicks, but they're dead. NO politician, ever.

I trust Chris Floyd, Joe Bageant, Dennis Perrin, Jon Schwarz, and IOZ.

I think that's about it.

sw

[wildflower]

31. Carter, Gore, Conyers, Kucinich, Kerry, Obama

[ShenandoahAspen]

33. Has to be Keith Olbermann.

I can't think of any politicians I can trust, though. Politics is just a nasty business and not very many trustworthy people in it.

[Joe Fields]

38. Kucinich...

[Marie26]

39. Al Gore. nt

[magellan]

40. Jonathan Turley n/t

[TheWatcher]

41. Paul Wellstone.

Sadly, he can no longer speak for us.

[underseasurveyor]

43. I miss Paul

:-(

[Adsos Letter]

44. The Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State...

Church/State separation is of fundamental importance to the health of our republic...I trust this man's perspectives on where we stand on issues affecting that vital principle.

[Ex Lurker]

45. I don't trust anyone

there are some I agree with more than others, but trust? I've lived long enough and seen too much. Trustworthy people don't go into politics nowadays, if indeed they ever did.

[earth mom]

46. Al Gore, Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan.

Interesting how few chose Obama. :wow:

Not.

[Indi Guy]

47. Kucinich is an honest broker of reality n't...

[DailyGrind51]

50. Bill Moyers!

[Political Heretic]

51. No one comes to mind.