stock in trade

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In the Philippines, there is the story of an election success:

May 11, 6:38 AM (ET)
By JIM GOMEZ
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine Sen. Benigno Aquino III, whose parents fought to topple a dictatorship, promised Tuesday to fulfill his campaign promise to fight corruption as he headed for a landslide victory in the presidential elections.

"I will not only not steal, but I'll have the corrupt arrested," Aquino, 50, told a news conference in his first comments since Monday's polls. Massive corruption has long dogged the Philippines, tainting electoral politics and skimming billions of public funds in a country where a third of the population lives on $1 a day.
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Imagine that -- a politician, who is often in the business of praising his own stock, is reduced to saying, "I will not only not steal...."

Theft is thus elevated to a politician's stock in trade. And it is so pervasive that even the electorate knows it.
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