Poll: majority of Australians 'feel misled' by Howard over war: "A quarter of all respondents believe Mr Howard deliberately misled the public on his case for war. The same proportion were equally convinced that he had not. Forty-two per cent said they thought Mr Howard had unintentionally misled them because he had been misled by others. That suggests that, as evidence of misleading intelligence has built in the United States and Britain, Mr Howard has been successful in convincing the electorate of his repeated assertions that no intelligence doctoring was done 'by the Government I lead'."

These results show the success and importance of one of the keynotes of Howard's political strategies - "no one told me about this." The public want to believe that their leaders are honest and honourable, and this makes them fundamentally susceptible to deception.

Poll: majority of Australians 'feel misled' by Howard over war: "A quarter of all respondents believe Mr Howard deliberately misled the public on his case for war. The same proportion were equally convinced that he had not. Forty-two per cent said they thought Mr Howard had unintentionally misled them because he had been misled by others. That suggests that, as evidence of misleading intelligence has built in the United States and Britain, Mr Howard has been successful in convincing the electorate of his repeated assertions that no intelligence doctoring was done 'by the Government I lead'."

These results show the success and importance of one of the keynotes of Howard's political strategies - "no one told me about this." The public want to believe that their leaders are honest and honourable, and this makes them fundamentally susceptible to deception.