FTA:

The poll asked: Which is more concerning in a president, someone who doesn't tell the truth, or someone who might be too old to serve? The results were lopsided: By 68 to 32 percent, respondents were more concerned about the lying than the aging. Given the relentless media focus on presidential age of late, that's simply remarkable.

While the poll doesn't directly compare Trump and Biden on that particular question, it also finds that 52 percent of Americans say Biden has the "character to serve as president," whereas only 43 percent say this about Trump. Fifty-six percent say Trump lacks the character to serve, which surely reflects public perceptions of Trump's dishonesty.

MFA:

Voters grasp Trump's world-historical levels of dishonesty. This week's Pew poll found that only 36 percent of voters view Trump as "honest." By contrast, 48 percent view Biden that way"not good enough, clearly, but Biden's large advantage here is especially notable given that as president, he has been subjected to a far harsher media spotlight for the last four years.

What the new Marist poll adds to this debate is the idea that voters see excessive lying as a serious problem in a president. Yet ask yourself this: How often is Trump's lying covered that way? Trump's dishonesty is rarely treated as a sign of his temperamental unfitness for the presidency. Biden's age, of course, is constantly covered as an important factor in determining his fitness for the office. Biden's age should be covered this way, to be clear. But so should Trump's relentless lying.

The key distinction here is between mental unfitness for the presidency (where Biden does very badly, relative to Trump), and temperamental unfitness for that majestic office. On the latter, Quinnipiac found earlier this year Biden does significantly better than Trump does, with an extraordinary 61 percent saying Trump is temperamentally unfit for the presidency.

Temperamental unfitness also matters! And honesty is central to that. So along these lines, what might coverage of Trump's serial lying look like?