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issue167范文 It is impossible for an effective political leader to tell the truth all the time. Complete honesty is not a useful virtue for a politician. Is complete honesty a useful virtue in politics? The speaker contends that it is not, for the reason that political leaders must sometimes lie to be effective. In order to evaluate this contention it is necessary to examine the nature of politics, and to distinguish between shor-term and long-term effectiveness. On the one hand are three compelling arguments that a political leader must sometimes be less than truthful in order to be effective in that leadership. The first argument lies in the fact that politics is a game played among politicians-and that to succeed in the game one must use the tools that are part-and-parcel of it. Complete forthrightness is a sign of vulnerability and naivete, neither of which will earn a politician respect among his or her opponents, and which those opponents will use to every advantage against the honest politician. Secondly, it is crucial to distinguish between misrepresentation of factin other words, lies-and mere political rhetoric. The rhetoric of a successful politician eschews rigorous factual inquiry and indisputable fact while appealing to emotions, ideals, and subjective interpretation and characterizations. Consider, for example, a hypothetical candidate for political office who attacks the incumbent opponent by pointing out only certain portions of that opponents legislative voting record. The candidate might use a vote against a bill eliminating certain incentives for local businesses as dear evidence that the oppoent is anti-business, bad for the economy, or out of touch will what voters want. None of these allegations are outright lies; they are simply the rhetorical cant of the effective plilician. | 
