You can almost see voters nodding their heads at home: The public's faith in politicians and political institutions has been on a steep and dangerous decline for decades because elected leaders fail to deliver.

With gridlock the norm Congress's approval rating is below 10 percent and the public has lost faith in its national leadership.

Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.

In Barack Obama Democrats have put forth a man of strong religious faith who is comfortable connecting his spiritual life to his public role as a policymaker.

Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy and when we lose faith in the system we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.

Painting is a faith and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.

Politics is an act of faith you have to show some kind of confidence in the intellectual and moral capacity of the public.

What I think is fair to say is that coming out of the Republican camp there have been efforts to suggest that perhaps I'm not who I say I am when it comes to my faith - something which I find deeply offensive and that has been going on for a pretty long time.

Humanitarian missions are little different from any other public enterprise diplomacy included which is susceptible of misinterpretation by the public hence ultimately of failure.

By virtually any measure the record of the Republican Majority is an appalling failure.