"What I 'd prefer is that the candidates be honest about their views , whether it 's popular or unpopular . But even knowing we 're talking about political candidates ( who may lie to get votes ) , when a candidate says something is his or her view , I think we have to take them at what they say when they answer a question like that so directly and emphatically . Otherwise , there 's little point in asking questions to begin with other than maybe watching the reaction of body language and how they would respond under pressure , and so forth . Political discourse has to operate to where when a candidate gives a given view as HIS or HER view , they are taken at their word that IS their view . '' No `` ca n't mean `` yes `` and so forth ."
"No , that 's too niave an approach . We know politicians are going to tell some lies , I trust that 's a given . We , as political consumers , ca n't simply take politicians at their word . If we want to make informed decisions about candidates we need to develop the skills to make useful judgement calls about what they 're saying . We need to figure out how often they lie , what they lie about , how big their lies are . Obviously we should n't need to do this , it would be great if we could actually take our politicians at their word . Bad the sad reality is that we ca n't , not at this stage anyway . In this particular case , if Biden says he does n't support gay marriage I 'm just as likely to think it 's because he knows that open support could cost him the White House as any other reason . It 's sad that such double speak is needed , I 'd love it if enough courageous politicians stood forth and ended the political need for lies , but until that wonderful day I 'm not going to be naive and take everything they say at their word , nor am I going to jump up and down and point fingers at every falsehood . I 'll try to judge the politicians by their actions , and their lies by their magnitude , scope , and quantity ."
"What I 'd prefer is that the candidates be honest about their views , whether it 's popular or unpopular . ''"
"No , that 's too niave an approach ."