The Double-Dealt Generation

They’re 17, 18, 19 years old and voting for the first time in 2008. Will they go to the polls thinking Presidents always lie?

They were pre-pubescent when Bill Clinton was being impeached for lying about unzipping in the Oval Office. Presidents should tell the truth, lawmakers declaimed.

Since then these young people have known only George W. Bush who lies about everything, from the reasons for going to war in Iraq to when he knew about Hurricane Katrina.

They have learned to laugh at what the President says from Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, but who will they take seriously?

As they listen skeptically, what do they make of Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, John Edwards, Mitt Romney et al? As some of them rally around Barack Obama, will their tentative faith be rewarded? Or have we bred a generation of cynics who won’t know the truth when they hear it?