Honesty

It may seem ironic for someone like me, who for a long time had a career in which I told lies for a living, to rank this so highly. What's important to me is personal honesty and self-aware honesty. However, to echo a point Frank makes below, be wary of the person who talks obsessively about honesty and trust. Here's an old truism from my days in advertising. Q. "How do you say "fuck you" in the advertising business?" A. "Trust me."

My advice to you is to be very wary of the person who is telling you that honesty is the most important thing.

Bet you guys didn't know I work for NASA. Yeah NASA.

I know I have told some white lies in my past, and probably will in my future... HOWEVER, I do believe that if you give honesty, then you should receive honesty. Now if I was going to be heading out with friends, and my outfit was not looking good at all on me, I would REALLY hope someone would tell me before I go out in public. Another example, you see someone walking, and their fly is open.... do you tell them? I would... I have not a problem telling someone if they have something stuck in their teeth, toliet paper stuck on their foot, or even their skirt stuck in their panties..... I would hope someone would tell me, so I let people know when they might embarrass themselves. Now however, I do feel that white lies are a necessity. I am not going to tell my kids that Santa doesn't exist..... or the easter bunny... That is just part of the whole process of being a kid and being a parent. Why not let our kids dream. Or if I know I was going to truly hurt someone by telling them the comp... Read more

Compared to Obama...5 stars

we all know is full of it

Honesty is a rare quality in a politician, and especially in a President. Bush has proven to be an exception.

If he moves his lips, he's lying.  Why can’t we get President Bush and Vice President Cheney for lying about Weapons of Mass destruction, exposing Valerie Plame, lying about air quality at Ground Zero, etc etc?

If you aren't honest than why the hell are you wasting other peoples time with your lies! I hate liars!!!!

A liar's liar.

This president has been caught in his lies as much as any politician out there. When any of them say something, I take it with a *huge* grain of salt...

Honesty and Dubyah? Yeah sure, they go together like peanut butter and dog manure, right!  This idiot wouldn't know honesty if it crawled up his leg and bit him on his butt!  And all of the low I.Q. Bush believers out there say "He has to lie because he is a patriot! He has to out smart the evil liberals, so he lies because that's the only way he can do what's right for America"!  You stupid bunch of idiot Bush wacked morons!

Not the most important issue in every case.  But for important decisions, the honesty of people you rely on is vital.  Important decisions should never be made with information from people whose honesty is in question.  The eyes tell all.  If you can look into someone's eyes and not detect a lie, stay away from that person.  Period.  That is a frightening ability.

honesty is important. It would be difficult to be around someone who lied all of the time. the one with the cheshire cat grin and stabbed you in the back. Not being able to trust someone, ruins any kind of relationship. when you list reasons to not like a person, lack of honesty is right at the top. the only reason I give this a four instead of a five is brutally honest people are a bit too severe.I am not for someone who would think it is okay to be cruel to make their point.

If there's one thing I can't stand about a person, it's a lack of honesty. I cannot tolerate liars...

I'd rather be hurt with honesty than appeased temporarily by lies.  If you don't believe this, imagine what it would be like if someone lied to you about being faithful.  That hurts.

In order to be successful in life, you have to not only be honest with others, but also be honest with yourself.  Your reputation in life is everything:  money, power and other material things are secondary. Personal honesty in many respects is far more difficult, because there we have to confront ourselves, our own egos, eccentricities, and come to terms with them. Self-growth comes about through an honest evaluation of your weaknesses and seeing how you can work on them.  In the final analysis, a true friend is someone who gives you the straight truth.  It’s a lesson that I've had to learn the hard way, as I've taken honest advice as adversarial criticism from friends, and as a result I've lost good relationships in the process.  Someone who tells you what you want to hear as opposed has a personal interest at stake that might not coincide with your own.  Honesty is the ultimate test of loyalty.

I have only put one Marine up on charges ever and guess what... I did it because he lied to me.

Very important, but I do believe that certain things are better left unsaid.

a HUGE liar. Clinton lied about Lewinsky. Bush told us there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Which has caused more problems for the American taxpayer?

He is a pathological liar, meaning he cannot distinguish the truth from a lie. He is self-deluded, and therefore grossly dishonest.

This philanderer makes "Slick Willie" look like a BOYSCOUT! (and that's no mean feat!)

Apparently all it takes is a few punk bands and biased news stations to sway the vibe of things. People can question anything when they want to, but the extent to which they've pushed this "what-if" situation is too much. Yeah "what if" he about this, "what if" he lied about that; the truth is no one really knows whether he was right or not, time will tell, but I believe it really is unfair for people to say that he flat-out lied. The definition of a "lie" is something that you can't change.

As opposed to the Clinton's? Rose Law billing scandal ring a bell? Whitewater Gate sound familiar? Monica Lewinsky? Come on let's not talk about up front.

It is amusing to read the constant Clinton/Bush comparisons, as though honesty and other personal attributes are some sort of competitive disciplines. I think that using other politicians as a yardstick to measure the honesty of any given politician is going to give somewhat warped results. As CanadaSucks points out earlier, politicians routinely bend the truth, sometimes in the interests of national security, sometimes in the interests of pursuing a nefarious agenda in foreign policy, which may not be palatable to the general public, and sometimes in the interests of avoiding the heat when having a bit on the side. A challenge to all - pull away the backdrop of the Clinton and his administration and try to judge the Bush and his administration on their own merits and failings. You may find that George is not so honest, based on more objective standards. On the plus find, when you remove the Clinton comparison, you may find that George is not as bad a speaker as you had though... Read more

The Bush presidency has never been forthright and open with the American people. And it has been full of cover-ups and questionable ethics.

Got us involved in a war with deceit and lies. He's the very antithesis of honesty.

For those comparing Clinton to Bush: Lying about b/j= 0 deaths, just a lot of humiliation. Lying about reasons to go to war with Iraq= 1,500 dead American soldiers. So you tell me which one is worse... As for Bush's honesty, it's like his ability to unite nations and Americans: non-exsistant. Heck, even his fellow Republicans know he's a bold-faced liar.

I honestly can't believe there are people who have given him higher than a one on this...I only wish there were negative ratings allowed.

Anyone who believes a politician is honest is extremely gullible and unfortunately those are the people these honest politicians prey upon. You folks need to find some strength and quit allowing these wolves to deceive you into blind obedience.

I think he is actually honest most of the time. He just has wrong information a lot.

I believe in his honesty. I believe his heart is right, I believe that he has 4 more years because, I'm not the only one that trusts his honesty!! *smirk*

Weapons of massdestruction...

I would give zero stars if I could. Bush's honesty is largely accidental, and unintentionally frank and to the point, when it occurs.

LOL. Wubya is the poster child for dishonesty. Lying and manipulation are the only things he is good at. How can anyone believe that this *ss has been honest?

George W. Bush has had probably the most difficult presidency of all time. He is unwavering on his beliefs and really tells it like it is, whether it is popular or not. I don't know of any other person who could have done a better job than President Bush after 9/11/01. The detonation of the artillery round containing the deadly toxic nerve agent sarin comes just days after a separate artillery shell was found containing mustard gas. If it was ever in question to protect our country from Iraq I guess yesterday's news proves it was. Is war ever justified? War terrifies me for my children, my son serves in the military. God, please protect our brave service men and women. Also God give our President wisdom and strenght to continue pressing on.

I agree that all Presidents lie, but you can't lie about issues as important as war.

Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons. Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons....They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on, But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them. Bush lied, thousands died. And the lies continue.

What? He's a liar. A politician must, by definition, bend the truth (or perception thereof) to consolidate power for his/her voting public. I love listening to Americans: I want politicians to be honest. No you don't. We exploit foreign labor, force treaties and policies that only politically and financially benefit our country. Of COURSE you have to lie- you don't become president by being a boy scout. . .you have to have a few scalps on the wall to have this job. I want my president to take care of the country- if he or she has to offend a few tight-waists by bending the language then so be it. People who claim they want honesty usually want validation of their own philosophies.

George W. Bush is one of the most dishonest presidents ever. He lied about national security and a war on Iraq, and people still say he is honest. Clinton lied; no one died. Bush's lies are leading to the deaths of American soldiers every day.

He is probably the least honest president in mondern history. I didn't think that Clinton was honest either, but at least Clinton didn't lie about issues of national security, terrorism, the cost of the presciption drug benefit, and the reasons for the war in Iraq.

Would someone explain to him that being honest means not telling lies about everything?

This is a hard one to judge. I think he tries to tell the truth as he knows it, but therein lies the rub--he is often fed garbage, misrepresentations, and bald lies by his advisors, and unfortunately he lacks the ability to sort all of this out. He believes they tell him the truth--and he passes it on, largely in good faith. I could be wrong about this but this is my current feeling about his honesty. Honesty in a president MUST be coupled with intelligence to be a complete virtue.

The man does not understand the meaning of truth - nor can he spell it!

This is the easiest thing to judge....just have him hold a "Town Meeting" without having Karl Rove script out the questions. Let the public ask him anything/everything that seems questionable. Ask him about misusing intelligence, ask him about drug use, ask him about his insider trading, ask him about draft dodging, ask him about covertly running the office of President. But I guess we will just have to take his word that he is honest and trustworthy...because we will NEVER get the chance to confront him about it and find out for ourselves.

He's a lying pig. Nothing he says can be believed. Even if he did tell the truth once or twice, it would be about some totally trivial matter. He's a psychopath, so he lies like he breathes, and can't help himself. His whole life is a lie. He should get zero stars, because of his utter absence of honesty. Honesty just isn't there, kind of like how air is missing from interstellar space.

I can't believe some of these coments here. We went through 8 years of the most dishonest and immoral administration in our history. Comparing George W. to Bubba as far as honesty is like comparing a jay walker to a serial killer. I guess it's part of the expectations of each party. Democrats believe in relative moralism which means it's OK if you think it is OK do it. Republicans believe the same moral standards for all. That is why it is OK a Democrat president to sell missle technology to the Chinese for campaign contributions but not OK for a Republican to divert money to fight communism in Central America because a pro-communist Democratic administration and Legislature previously forbade it.

He's never met a lie he wouldn't tell.

Not only this is guy a baldface liar, he's not a very good one, at that. He lied about his military record, he never came clean with the American public about his alcoholism and drug use, he lied about his business dealings, he tried to keep his drunken driving arrest out of the picture. Despite the fact that his drunken irresponsibility was brought to the public's attention shortly before the election, the droolers voted for him anyway. Evidently, the droolers think that lying about your sex life like Clinton did is a mortal political sin and a sign of total moral absence, but have no problem with someone trying to keep the fact quiet that he was arrested for driving an automobile while drunk. In this, Bush not only broke the law and put both himself and other people at risk due to his recklessness, he tried to hide it from the public. Remember that he also lied about it on a questionnaire when he was called to Jury Duty in Texas. So he not only tried to cover it up, he also dir... Read more

Yep. More baseless arguments. I havent seen Bush caught in any lies yet. And why not? Well, perhaps because he tell the TRUTH, unlike Clinton and Gore. Clinton couldnt even be honest with his own wife! What a joke!