Is it possible any longer for a person to be a truth teller and be

[CanIgonow]

President?Our first President George Washington was supposed to have said I cannot tell a lie.Our current WH occupant appears to have stood that on its head by saying I cannot tell anything but a lie.What do you all think?

[Stanchetalarooni]

1. George Washington never told a lie?

Do you honestly think that Washington never told a lie?

[CanIgonow]

3. I don't really know.I am just mouthing off the mythology presented

to us in our history textbooks.

[Warpy]

8. That story never happened, been debunked every place

but elementary school text books.

Personally, I don't particularly want a compulsive truth teller as president, he'd be a diplomatic disaster.

I'd prefer one who can tell the truth, though, which the present occupant of the White House can not.

[parasim]

2. I always thought the "I cannot tell a lie" meme was...

the very first disinfo campaign.


Gee... I'm getting pretty cynical in my old age...

[Ms. Clio]

4. Um, the whole George Washington, "I cannot tell a lie" thing

is a fable that was invented by one of Washington's early biographers, Parson Weems.

[CanIgonow]

5. I have to say it comes in handy for an old guy like me to tell my teenage

kids what our founding father was like and how they should pattern themselves after him.

[Ms. Clio]

6. Why would you think a fable--a lie--is useful for anything of the sort?

Yours kid will learn, if they ever take a college history course, if not before, that it was always a lie?

[CanIgonow]

7. I stand corrected.Misplaced patriotism has a way of skewing your

thinking.

[Ms. Clio]

9. Presidents, like all human beings, are complex

George Washington can be admired and perhaps emulated for other, very real, personal characteristics and deeds.