Some Politicians Bear False Witness More than Others

The Republican Party likes to identify itself as the party of moral values. You know, the people who endorse and follow the ten commandments. Telling the truth used to be an expectation of Christians because of the commandment in Exodus 20:6, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”. Although there are reasons to be skeptical of the local JS Politifact franchise which displayed occasions of hair-spliting and sloppy research during the Walker recall efforts , the Tampa National Politifact does provide an insight into the information and data that politicians use and cherry-pick when they make their statements. With that in mind I am sharing this summary of the Politifact assessments of the four candidates running for President and Vice President in 2012.

We are all aware by now that Politifact has the following categories: True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False, False, and Pants on Fire. For this analysis I have consolidated the Politifact categories into three: True (includes true and mostly true), Half True, and False (includes mostly false, false, and pants on fire). This is summarized in the table below

 

TABLE: Exodus 20:16 “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”

 

 Candidate            True                  Half True             False

 Romney                 30%                  28%                    43%

 Ryan                      27%                  21%                    51%

 Obama                   45%                   26%                   28%

 Biden                     41%                   27%                   34%

 

And the Winner is!.......

Wisconsin's own Paul Ryan who bears false witness (it's still a sin) 51% of the time.

 The pattern is clear, the Republican candidates 'Bear False Witness” at a rate that is statistically higher than the Democratic candidates.

 The Catholic Republican lies more than the Mormon Republican. It is clear that being a Republican Candidate is more of a predictor of lying than religious affiliation because the Catholic Democrat is nearly as honest as the “We don't know if he's really a Christian” Democrat, President Obama.

 It's time for Paul Ryan to go to confession and restart his life as an honest man. (This may disqualify him from the Republican Party)