{"id":5812,"date":"2005-11-11T12:23:08","date_gmt":"2005-11-11T17:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5812"},"modified":"2005-11-11T12:23:08","modified_gmt":"2005-11-11T17:23:08","slug":"its-the-honesty-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/its-the-honesty-stupid\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s the honesty, stupid"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been posting all week about all the various polls highlighting Bush’s faltering public support, but the one issue that has to keep the Bush gang up at night is the question of the president’s honesty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most Americans say they aren’t impressed by the ethics and honesty of the Bush administration, already under scrutiny for its justifications for an unpopular war in Iraq and its role in the leak of a covert CIA officer’s identity.<\/p>\n

Almost six in 10 — 57% — said they do not think the Bush administration has high ethical standards and the same portion says President Bush is not honest, an AP-Ipsos poll found. […]<\/p>\n

“Honesty is a huge issue because even people who disagreed with his policies respected his integrity,” said Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist from the University of Texas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that last point can’t be emphasized enough. Part of Bush’s pitch has always been that you can trust him, regardless of whether you agree with him. Americans, for reasons that I’ve never understood, used to buy into this. Not anymore.<\/p>\n

Also note, this AP-Ipsos poll is hardly the first survey to notice.<\/p>\n

* The latest Washington Post\/ABC News poll<\/a> found that by a 3 to 1 ratio, Americans say the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined rather than risen under Bush. Only 34% think Bush is doing a good job ensuring high ethics in government.<\/p>\n

* A CNN\/USA Today\/Gallup poll<\/a> found that a majority of Americans “deliberately misled the American public” before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n

* The latest NBC News\/Wall Street Journal poll<\/a> found a 17-point drop since January in those who see the president as honest and straightforward. Only 33% give Bush a positive rating on honesty, while 47% give a negative rating. Moreover, 57% believe Bush “deliberately misled” the nation about Iraq.<\/p>\n

If the public doesn’t trust Bush, the chances of the oft-rumored “comeback” decline considerably. Every claim he makes will be viewed with skepticism and distrust. A man without credibility doesn’t make much of a salesman.<\/p>\n

It’s as if most of the country is collectively saying, “Fool us once…”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been posting all week about all the various polls highlighting Bush’s faltering public support, but the one issue that has to keep the Bush gang up at night is the question of the president’s honesty. Most Americans say they aren’t impressed by the ethics and honesty of the Bush administration, already under scrutiny for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}