OK, let's forget for a second how badly Gallup bungled their presidential polls this year. After more than 60 years in the business—and doing it so well that your name actually becomes synonymous with what you do—you're allowed an off day.

Their latest poll is their annual pulse check of the most and least-trusted professions—always an entertaining read, if for no other reason than to find out how badly my own trade fares each year.

This year there's good news, bad news, and news that's well, not very newsy, I suppose.

The good news is that the top three professions—based on public trust, anyway—are all in the medical field: nurses, pharmacists and doctors themselves. While it's interesting doctors actually pull up the rear here, do any of us really have any choice when it comes to trusting the people who make up this trifecta? I guess we can always get second opinions if we don't like a certain diagnosis, while we're usually stuck with what we get when it comes to the other two sets of white coats. I also think that as consumers take a more proactive, hands-on approach to their own health care, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see doctors tumble a little bit in the rankings over the course of the rest of the decade. I think the days of blind trust in the doctor's office are as endangered as White Christmases.

(Let me interject here—in my most convincing stage whisper—that journalists are smack dab in the middle of the pack. Now while this strikes me as a little odd in this era of the fourth estate splintering into politically charged variations on a theme, it's encouraging to see my own calling rise above the cellar of the public trust.)

Speaking of which, that's exactly where we find our elected representatives, second from the bottom (almost as bad as my hometown football team). And, yes, this is when (and where) I get back on my soapbox. These clowns already boast the lowest approval ratings ever. And now this newest poll shows that, by far, it's the least-trusted occupation one can aspire to. So, again, I ask you, why do we keep electing these people? We consistently disapprove of the job they do. We already blame them for this fiscal cliff debacle. And now we just reiterated how little we trust them. Yet incumbency re-election rates still hover over 80 percent. Do we really think every other representative (or senator) sucks but our own? Does our collective national narcissism really extend that far?

(And remind me again why we have a term limit for our chief executive but not for members of Congress? Or the judiciary, for that matter? Kinda makes that whole checks and balances thing a little unbalanced...)

Oh, and that not-so-newsy bit? Your neighborhood car salesman's dead last in the trustworthy department, which shouldn't surprise a single one of you. That being said, we should all be concerned that sales-related occupations dominate the bottom half of the Gallup list. So you're telling me you can sell everything but yourself?

Instant Insights /

You&rsquo;re a liar and a thief&mdash;or just in sales

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You’re a liar and a thief—or just in sales