Obama and Romney to face lie detector test tonight. Yep, that's going to happen

 

While the 2012 U.S. Election is being viewed as the first full-on social media election (both Twitter and Facebook were at pre-mass popularity levels in 2008), it's also the first election where presidential candidates will face the lie detector test.

Wait, what?

No, they won't be sat down in a grimy chair with a beaming lamp shoved in their faces while they answer questions about what they'll do for the economy, to increase jobs, or with foreign policy — although, it would make for good television.

It’s less Hollywood movie-esque, but interesting nonetheless.

A non-partisan group in the United States in favour of limited government will put Obama and Romney to the test off-camera. Employing a new truth-detecting technology, Americans for Limited Government says they will measure voice patterns to determine whether Obama and Romney are telling the truth or not. The analysis also measures stress levels and level of concentration, the group says.

Unlike a traditional polygraph which requires a suspect’s cooperation and numerous probes on the person’s body voice analysis studies the words and speech pattern of the individual and determines if the statement was the truth “with a high degree of accuracy.”

Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government, said the technology is a “breakthrough for the American people.” In a statement posted on the group’s website, Wilson wrote the results of the tests will be made public and voters will “better be able to judge what promises are real, and which ones are nothing more than political pandering.”

The statement also said “with words like inaccurate, person uncertain, false statement, highly stressed and truth, the user’s computer screen literally explodes with data related to the veracity of the subject’s assertions.”

The company behind the technology, Voice Analysis Technology, has been used by over six law enforcement agencies, including the U.S Department of Defense and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to interrogate suspects.

 “The near real time analysis that Americans for Limited Government will be able to provide the public on the veracity of the statements made in the debate is a game changer in how people relate to politicians. The operating assumption by the general public is that if a politician’s mouth is moving, he or she must be lying, by putting Obama and Romney to the test, we will find out if this is true,” Wilson wrote.

It’ll be interesting to see what the results of this testing will prove – if anything.

- Andrew Livingstone, Staff reporter

Comments

[KD]

Useless test. We all know they'll both be lying through their teeth. The important part is which one will be more persuasive to the gullible masses.

[USIndependent]

I disagree with any who say they can't find out the truth. I agree that most cannot tell the truth from a deception. An indicator that has worked on thousands does not necessarily work on a potential POTUS or the re-election thereof candidate. They are not average.

Seek first the truth and the partial truths that each spoke. Pay attention to outright fabrications or distortions. Pay closer attention to when they speak as weasels telling a partial truth but not the whole truth. That is a snake waiting to bite and the reason it is said "be careful what you wish for because you may get what you want and something you didn't see coming".

In the above, I expect and have already seen both are snakes but one is a liar. Watch them yourself as our room did without commentary and commercials or sponsorship and spin. US TV news is a propaganda machine with truth, half-truths, and out right lies promoted in the name of responsible journalism and truth.

The highest regards in this debate goes to the moderator - Jim Lear for allowing true debate and letting the American people along with the world see each candidate for who they are while inspiring debate that the public needed to hear.

I nominate Jim Lear to be the best and most efficient moderator of any modern debate, letting the discourse follow the path the people must know, than anyone else in the last 10 years. Jim Lear for the Pulitzer! Cheers!

[Kate.A]

Who's to say if they are in fact telling the truth? No one, including Obama and Romney, will know if they can increase jobs or what they will do for the economy or foreign policy until Obama is elected into a second term, or Romney is inaugurated. They can make promises to America, but only time will tell if they will keep them.

[Luke V]

I really don't believe that this test will prove anything in the grand scheme of the election. It may sway the odd undecided voter, but in the long run, very little will be based upon the test results, mainly because of the nature of the technology that will be used. There is no guarantee that these lie detector machines are 100% accurate, and as long as there is some doubt in the validity of the test results, the two candidates will fight tooth and nail claiming that what they said was in actuality the truth. Plus, even if the candidates are making promises with the intention of following through with what they say, there is no certainty that once they take office they will implement them with effectiveness. Essentially what I'm saying is that although the electoral system is flawed, the implementation of lie detector test really wont revolutionize the political world. The voter simply has to accept what the candidates say as vehement idealism and realize that there are no guarantees in politics.