http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/ en-us Copyright 2008 Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:00:00 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.36 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Hillary Clinton, April 17, 2008. "I think [the war in Iraq] is the first time we've ever been taken to war and had a president who wouldn't pay for it." --Hillary Clinton, Democratic debate in Pennsylvania, April 17, 2008. Congress invented the federal income tax in August 1861 to help pay for the Civil War. But is Hillary Clinton correct in claiming that George W. Bush is the first president in American history to refuse to pay for a war that he launched? It is a little more complicated than that. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/04/paying_for_the_iraq_war.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/04/paying_for_the_iraq_war.html Candidate Watch Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:00:00 -0400 Testifying to Congress, April 8, 2008. "We haven't turned any corners. We haven't seen any lights at the end of the tunnel." --Gen. David Petraeus. "The reality is, it is hard in Iraq. And there are no light switches to throw that are going to go dark to light." --Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The semi-annual Congressional dog and pony show on Iraq provided the three remaining presidential candidates an opportunity to explain how they will clean up the mess left behind by George W. Bush, beginning in January 2009. In their different ways, John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Barack Obama have all tried to convince American voters that their Iraq policy will produce peace with honor. All three candidates are spinning a very grim reality to make their preferred course of action seem easier and less painful than it actually is. Let us look at each of their positions http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/04/still_no_light_at_the_end_of_t.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/04/still_no_light_at_the_end_of_t.html Candidate Watch Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:55:00 -0400 Heading to Iraq, March 17, 2008 "You know, John McCain wants to continue a war in Iraq perhaps as long as 100 years." --Sen. Barack Obama, Lancaster, PA, Town Hall meeting, March 31, 2008. The charge that John McCain wants to wage a "100-year war" in Iraq has become a recurring theme of the Obama campaign. The candidate has made the claim several times on the campaign trail, as has Susan Rice, one of his top foreign policy advisers. McCain has never talked about wanting a 100-year war in Iraq. But he has talked about a prolonged U.S. military presence in Iraq, similar to the stationing of U.S. troops in Germany after World War II or in Korea after the Korean war. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/04/mccains_100year_war.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/04/mccains_100year_war.html Candidate Watch Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:00:00 -0400 In Amman, Jordan, March 18, 2008, with Sens. Lieberman and Graham. "As you know, there are al Qaeda operatives that are taken back into Iran, given training as leaders, and they're moving back into Iraq. --John McCain, Hugh Hewitt Radio Show, March 17, 2008. Getting the facts right about Iraq remains a challenge for American politicians five years after the U.S. invasion. Speaking in Amman, Jordan, after a visit to Iraq, Republican candidate John McCain was obliged to correct himself after telling reporters that Iran was training al-Qaeda operatives, who were then moving back into Iraq to engage in terrorist activities. The Arizona senator made this claim at least twice, first in an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt and then at a press briefing the following the day. McCain is hardly the first U.S. politician to be tripped up by the complexities of Iraqi and Middle http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/mccains_foreign_policy_gaffe.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/mccains_foreign_policy_gaffe.html Candidate Watch Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:38:17 -0400 Howard Wolfson on Face the Nation, Feb. 17, 2008. The Fact Checker: "To be very clear about this, [Hillary Clinton] is going to stick to this plan that she has devised of bringing one to two brigades out [of Iraq] a month, whatever the realities on the ground. Is that correct?" Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson: "You are asking a question and I am giving you a one-word answer so we can be clear about this. The answer is yes." --Clinton campaign teleconference, March 17, 2008. Ever since she started running for president, Hillary Clinton has tried to preserve some wriggle room in promising to "end the Iraq war." At first, she was hesitant to provide any kind of timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq. Then she said that she would start withdrawing troops within 60 days of becoming president. Under pressure from her Democratic party rivals, she http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/iraq_truthtelling_part_ii_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/iraq_truthtelling_part_ii_1.html Candidate Watch Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:00:00 -0400 Samantha Power, March 10, 2008. Barack Obama "will, of course, not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator. He will rely upon a plan -- an operational plan -- that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn't have daily access now...It would be the height of ideology to sort of say, 'Well, I said it, therefore I'm going to impose it on whatever reality greets me.'" --Samantha Power, former Obama adviser, BBC interview, March 6, 2008. Returning to Washington after a five-day vacation, I am catching up on the Samantha Power resignation, the liaisons dangereuses of Eliot Spitzer, the Mississippi primary, the Geraldine Ferraro brouhaha, and much debate about who is best qualified to answer the phone at 3 a.m. My quick take on all this: next to extra-marital sex, speaking your http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/truthtelling_on_iraq.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/truthtelling_on_iraq.html Candidate Watch Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:25:59 -0400 UPDATE FRIDAY 10.30 A.M. Clinton the "negotiator" The Clinton campaign has provided various news clips to support Hillary Clinton's claim during last night's debate about "negotiating with governments like Macedonia to open their border again, to let Kosovar refugees in." The news articles make clear that Clinton visited Albanian refugee camps in Macedonia on May 14, 1999, during the NATO bombing war against Serbia. Macedonia had closed its borders the previous week, in order to stem the flow of Albanian refugees from Kosovo. The Macedonian government reopened the border on May 13, the day before Clinton toured the camps. According to this CNN report, only a few stragglers crossed the border. Clearly, Clinton's visit to Macedonia helped focus even more international attention on the country and the refugee crisis that resulted from the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Albanians from Kosovo by the Serbian authorities. According to a http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/democratic_debate_jan_30_2008.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/democratic_debate_jan_30_2008.html Live Fact Check Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:03:22 -0400 Shaking hands in Boca Raton, Fl., Jan. 24, 2008 "Gov. Romney wanted to set a date for withdrawal [from Iraq] similar to what the Democrats are seeking, which would have led to a victory by al Qaeda in my view." --John McCain, rally in Fort Myers, Florida, Jan. 26, 2008. John McCain is trying to shift the debate back to Iraq from the economy. He lumped Mitt Romney with the Democrats, saying, "if we surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do, and withdraw, as Governor Romney wanted to do, then there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost of American blood and treasure would be dramatically higher." The former Massachusetts governor has hit back, accusing his rival of "dishonesty," and distorting his position. So who is telling the truth? http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/mccain_attacks_romney_on_iraq.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/mccain_attacks_romney_on_iraq.html Candidate Watch Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:00:00 -0400 GOP debate in Florida, Jan. 24 Last night's GOP debate from Boca Raton, Florida, was a generally civil affair. The candidates avoided challenging each other's records directly, and did not get involved in factual disputes. Nevertheless, they still made a number of questionable statements, particularly on foreign policy. A sampler: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/the_gop_debate_in_florida.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/the_gop_debate_in_florida.html Candidate Watch Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:20:57 -0400 The Clintons on the campaign trail. Bill Clinton "continues to make statements that aren't supported by the facts, whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas." --Barack Obama, ABC Good Morning America, Jan. 21, 2008. "President Clinton's statements about Sen. Obama are true." --Hillary Clinton website, The Fact Hub. Barack Obama has accused former President Bill Clinton of "violating the standards of honesty" in political discourse, and distorting the record in order to support his wife's presidential bid. The Clinton campaign has dismissed the charge as sour grapes following two straight losses for Obama in New Hampshire and Nevada. "They are frustrated and they are attacking Bill Clinton out of frustration," said Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson. Some of the issues first raised by Bill Clinton resurfaced in the Democratic debate televised by CNN on Monday night, http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/bill_the_attack_dog.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/bill_the_attack_dog.html Candidate Watch Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:00:00 -0400 A U.S. Soldier in Iraq. The Clinton and Obama campaigns have gone to war over the Iraq war. With an assist from her husband, Hillary Clinton has accused Obama of "inconsistency" on Iraq, and failing to carry through on his initial opposition to the war once he got into the Senate in 2005. On the campaign trail in New Hampshire, Bill Clinton dubbed the Obama storyline on the Iraq war as "the biggest fairy tale I have ever seen." The Obama campaign, meanwhile, has hit back with claims that Obama always favored a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, in contrast to Clinton's equivocation on the issue. A leading Obama supporter, former assistant secretary of state Susan Rice, said on MSNBC that Obama had been pushing for an Iraq withdrawal "since 2002," an obvious error since the U.S. only entered Iraq in 2003. To resolve this dispute, I have assembled http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/clinton_vs_obama_on_iraq.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/clinton_vs_obama_on_iraq.html Candidate Watch Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:00:00 -0400 5:10 p.m. I just came from a Bill Clinton town hall meeting in Peterborough. The news nugget out of the meeting was his attack on Barack Obama for alleged inconsistency over the Iraq war. The former president reminded his audience that Obama had made a big deal out of a 2002 speech opposing the invasion of Iraq. According to Clinton, opposition to the war in Iraq has become "the central logic" behind the Obama presidential campaign. Clinton then expressed surprise that Obama has been allowed to get away with a statement in 2004, "at the Democratic Convention," saying that there was "not much difference" between him and George W. Bush on Iraq. He also quoted Obama as saying that he "did not know" how he would have voted on the now-contentious 2002 Senate resolution authorizing military action in Iraq, had he been in the Senate at the time. The way http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/obama_and_iraq.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/obama_and_iraq.html Candidate Watch Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:10:59 -0400 Monday, 9 a.m. I'm still in New Hampshire. Here are a couple more fact checks on Saturday's Republican debate in Manchester that we did not get around to posting in our live debate fact check. I am off to listen to Bill Clinton in Peterborough, and then Mitt Romney this afternoon. "I supported the president and the war before you [Mitt Romney] did. I supported the surge when you didn't". --Mike Huckabee. Huckabee was simply wrong on this, as the Romney campaign was quick to point out. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/nh_one_day_to_go.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/nh_one_day_to_go.html Candidate Watch Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:36:25 -0400 We assembled a team of crack fact checkers to truth squad the Republican and Democratic debates at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, and call the candidates out for any inaccuracies. Environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin was sitting next to me in the media filing center. She is also an expert on Congress, having covered it all her life. We were joined in Washington by John Solomon, a veteran political reporter for the Associated Press and now the Post, and diplomatic reporter Glenn Kessler. Prior to the foreign policy beat, Glenn covered economics. I was a foreign correspondent for the Post for more than a decade, and also covered education, so I hope we will be able to weigh in quickly on most factual disputes. Backing us up In Washington were ace researcher Alice Crites and editor Steve Ginsberg. Since this was a live fact check, we are not going to issue http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/live_debate_fact_check.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/live_debate_fact_check.html Live Fact Check Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:44:14 -0400 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Columbia University, September 24, 2007. Winner of the 2007 Pinocchio awards Congratulations to all the contestants for a splendid showing in 2007. The competition for the top places has been intense, but after due consideration, I have finally managed to narrow the field down to the top five fibs in two categories, "Presidential Candidates" and "Best of the Rest." Obviously, many of you will disagree with some of my choices. I have accepted advice from colleagues, friends, and readers but, in the end, this is a selection of personal favorites that makes no pretense to scientific accuracy. In the "Presidential Candidates" category, I am also handing out a special Geppetto truth-telling award. For a year-end wrapup on the "Fibs of 2007," see my front-page article in Sunday's WaPo here, accompanied by this graphic. On to 2008! Keep those suggestions coming. A Happy New Year to all. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/the_pinocchio_2007_awards.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/the_pinocchio_2007_awards.html Candidate Watch Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400