During the 1988 presidential election, then senator and presidential candidate George H. W. Bush said “Read my lips, NO NEW TAXES”. Yet throughout his presidency, taxes were raised twice and by no small amounts. So why did Bush lie? Well, why do politicians lie? This can be traced back to the most fundamental principle of politics: if you tell people what they want to hear, you will earn their vote. If you fail to reach the masses with your rhetoric, however, you will be out with yesterday’s trash. And let’s be honest, the truth usually isn’t good news. So why don’t politicians just lie outright, saying only what the masses want to hear and ignoring any negativities? The short answer is that there is too much risk involved with telling blatant lies. Because outright lies are easier to detect, the risk-reward factor is unfavorable thus disincentivizing this behavior. Instead, you will typically see distortion, exaggeration, misrepresentation, deception, half-tru...