The Trust Index: Worse Than Watergate

Well, this is just a great: A new Gallup survey (reported by Editor and Publisher) has found that Americans "express less trust in the federal government than at any point in the past decade, and trust in many federal government institutions is now lower than it was during the Watergate era, generally recognized as the low point in American history for trust in government."

And it's not just a matter of war weariness. Only 47 percent of people say they have a fair or better amount of trust in the federal government to deal with domestic issues.

It's also not a problem with government in general. "There has been no observable decline of public trust in state and local governments" in recent years, Gallup concludes.