How many U.S. presidents have lied in your lifetime?

[Teddy_Salad]

:shrug:

[Radical Activist]

1. Four

I'm counting everyone but Carter.

[Ediacara]

2. wow, I need to read better...

I thought the question was how many had liVed in my lifetime....

Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush.

[Leprechan29]

3. All of them

So that adds up to about 4, though I would place different values on the nature of those lies and their importance.

[NightTrain]

4. Good question!

Johnson (Gulf of Tonkin)
Nixon ("I am not a crook!")
Reagan (More fucking lies than I can readily recall)
Bush the Elder (Promised "a kinder, gentler nation.")
Clinton ("I did not have sex with that woman.")
Bush the Lesser (See "Reagan" above.)


Jimmy Carter struck me as pretty honest, but I was only a kid when he was president. As for Gerald Ford, I just faintly remember his brief presidency. What I recall the most vividly is that Ford struck me as unbelievably clumsy! Wasn't he always bumping his head or tripping on carpets? :shrug:

[Political_Junkie]

9. That about sums up

my experience too, NightTrain.

[NightTrain]

11. Another lie from Bush the Elder:

"Read my lips: NO! NEW! TAXES!"

[belladonna]

19. Same as Night Train

They all lie, the only difference is that Rethugs tend to kill lots of people, mostly brown people, with THEIR lies.

[RC]

5. Eleven

Am I old? My life time goes back to Truman.

[Hepburn]

8. ^5 - Me, too!! n/t

[Doc_Technical]

6. Twelve

From Hoover to "*", except FDR.

[freetobegay]

7. There have been 8 Presidents in my lifetime

If they all lied or not, i'll never know.

[NNadir]

10. 100% of them.

Several were habitual liars however; Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon (champion), Reagan (co-champion with Nixon), Bush I, Clinton (about girls only; nothing political).

The person who has usurped the White House would be a new champion liar were he President. However he is merely a usurper, not a President, and therefore does not qualify. The person in question has also set a new standard for White House incompetence, once jointly held by an Alzheimer's victim in the office and Franklin Pierce.

For the record, I was born in the last months of the Truman administration.

[Deja Q]

12. Every single one of them. Except maybe Carter...

And I was born a few months before Watergate happened.

Seems like the writers of Laugh-In didn't know how significant "Sock it to me!" was... And that transcends Nixon too...

I don't recall enough about Carter, but in 1980 when I was 8, I remember having a distinct uneasiness about Reagan...

[kcwayne]

13. 11

All Presidents tell lies.

8 of the 11 lied about very, very serious matters that cost people their lives.

Truman - The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Eisenhower - Stopping the Red Chinese in Korea
Kennedy - The Bay of Pigs
Johnson - Gulf of Tonkin
Nixon - Secret Bombing of Cambodia
Reagan - Iran Contra
Bush I - Iraq and Gulf War I
Bush II - Everything

I don't remember Ford doing anything, and he was only there two years.

I don't recall Carter lying about anything, although the Right Wing had a field day with the "killer rabbit" incident where he smacked an animal with an oar that was attempting to get into his rowboat. I liked Carter as President, and have even more respect for him in the way he has conducted his life post Presidency.

Clinton lied about sex, BFD.

I like Kennedy very much, but the Bay of Pigs incident was a serious failure. They betrayed people that they led to believe they would support in the invasion of Cuba, and those people died when they didn't get the promised military support.

[starroute]

23. Eisenhower also lied about the U-2 incident

That was courtesy of the CIA under Allen Dulles, as was the Bay of Pigs.

Maybe the real question should be how many of them have lied about things without the excuse of war/national security.

*Bush, of course, is too brain-damaged to even remember what he ate for breakfast yesterday, so he constantly makes up stories to cover the gaps. But what about the rest of them?

[name not needed]

14. Four

Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush

[No2W2004]

15. Hmmm.....

Let's see.

LBJ - about 'nam
Nixon - everything after "I, Richard Milhous Nixon"
Ford - W.I.N. buttons...yea, right!
Carter - pretty honest, but he had some not so honest people around him he had to cover for like Burt Lance.
Reagan - everything after "I, Ronald Wilson Reagan"
Bush the Elder - "Read my lips...no new taxes!"
Clinton - Lied about being faithful to his wife, but that should be between them.
Bush the Younger - Everything starting with "I'm from Texas"

[H2O Man]

16. Ten of ten.

Each of the last ten.

[UrbScotty]

17. Reagan, two Bushes, and Clinton

[HEyHEY]

18. All of them

Nobody's perfect

[neoteric lefty]

20. all of them !

how many national politicians have lied... just about all of them.

[ikojo]

21. Eight presidents have lied

during my lifetime. Regardless of political affiliation...they are human and humans are not always truthful. Some are more truthful than others, however.

[Heyo]

22. Every last one of them....

They are politicians!

Heyo