Bill Clinton says George Bush is "just like Pinocchio." A Democratic statement accuses the President of "intentionally lying to win the election." Presidential press secretary Marlin Fitzwater contends that Clinton's "regard for honesty and veracity is so low that he has no business calling anybody else a liar." Al Gore, Clinton's running mate, describes G.O.P. campaign strategy as a "big-lie technique." Dan Quayle argues that detractors are lying about his position on single motherhood.
Is anyone telling the truth in this campaign? According to a TIME/CNN poll conducted last week, many Americans think not. Sixty-three percent have little or no confidence that government leaders talk straight. Seventy-five percent believe there is less honesty in government than there was a decade ago. Forty percent say George Bush does not usually tell the truth, and 36% say that about Bill Clinton.
These numbers indicate a degree of public skepticism that seems, paradoxically, naive and more than a little excessive in the bargain. True, both major presidential candidates have well-established and largely self- administered credibility problems. "Read my lips" -- Bush's infamous 1988 pledge not to raise taxes -- and "I didn't inhale" -- Clinton's account of his youthful experiment with marijuana -- have become jokes, good for a chuckle or a bored wave of the hand wherever the politically world-weary gather.
It is also true that the candidates persist in being evasive about questionable episodes in their past. In Bush's case, it is what he knew as Ronald Reagan's Vice President about the Iran-contra scandal. His continued claim that he was "out of the loop" or "excluded from key meetings" when this murky, subterranean scheme was being hatched in the upper echelons of the Reagan Administration has been constantly challenged, notably by a 1987 memo dictated to an aide by former Secretary of State George Shultz.
Clinton's albatross -- now that Gennifer Flowers' accusations of adultery have receded into the half-life of media memory -- is his convoluted account of dealings with his Arkansas draft board back in 1969. Clinton has bumped into questions about avoiding induction into the military during the Vietnam War since his early days in Arkansas politics, and his responses amount to a tortuous thicket of incomplete and not entirely compatible explanations.
Ross Perot's return will revive similar concerns about his respect for the truth. Over the years, the Texas billionaire offered different accounts of his attempt to cut short his Naval service. One of Perot's explanations -- that he wanted out because he had been told by his commanding officer to bend or break certain shipboard regulations -- has been flatly denied by the now retired officer.
Little wonder that the campaign has produced a sour disenchantment with politicians, a pervasive sense of moral moonscape where authority ought to reign. Everyone in power lies, the current wisdom runs, and those who are caught lying either don't care or tell more lies in order to clear themselves.