http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/ en-us Copyright 2008 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:51:23 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.36 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss CNN Debate in Austin, Texas, Feb. 21, 2008. "Lifting whole passages from other peoples speeches is not change you can believe in, but change that you can xerox." --Hillary Clinton, CNN debate, Feb. 21, 2008. The generally civil Democratic debate from Texas produced a few contentious moments, particularly when Hillary Clinton repeated her plagiarism charge against Barack Obama. Both candidates made minor factual errors during the course of the 90-minute debate, but there were no huge howlers. Here are the exchanges that caught the Fact Checker's attention. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obama_vs_clinton.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obama_vs_clinton.html Candidate Watch Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:51:23 -0400 Democratic debate, Hollywood, CA, Jan. 31 2008. "I remember the days when Obama was already a rising national star in the Democratic Party and in the Illinois state legislature. And what a disappointment to us he was. He voted "present" instead of "no" on five horrendous anti-women/anti-choice bills." --E-mail from Connecticut NOW attacking Sen. Obama's record on abortion issues. The National Organization for Women has strongly endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. During the runup to Super Tuesday, a chain e-mail circulated among many NOW members denouncing Obama's record on abortion issues while serving as a state senator in the Illinois legislature. Echoing attacks by the Clinton campaign on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, the e-mails cited his "present" votes on a succession of bills sponsored by anti-abortion activists. Some analysts credit the earlier attacks on Obama's abortion record with helping to shift the momentum in the New http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_voting_record_on_aborti_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_voting_record_on_aborti_1.html Candidate Watch Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:00:00 -0400 It was one of the most devastating TV ads of the 2004 presidential campaign. To the tune of the "Blue Danube" waltz, the Democratic candidate was shown tacking his windsurf board left, then right, then left again while an announcer commented sarcastically, "John Kerry, whichever way the wind blows." As the primary season comes to a climax in the 2008 campaign, the two leading GOP candidates are invoking the waltz and windsurfing images to gain some vital last minute traction. John McCain and Mitt Romney have both issued web ads, modeled on the George W. Bush 2004 ad, seeking to pin the "biggest flip-flopper" on their rival and exploit a perceived weakness. Political analysts say that both Romney and McCain are vulnerable to the "flip-flop" charge for different reasons. "Flip-flopper" has become part of Romney's political identity, with the candidate changing positions on such core issues as abortion, gun http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/who_is_the_champion_flipfloppe_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/who_is_the_champion_flipfloppe_1.html Candidate Watch Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:00:00 -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 John Edwards, Ottumwa, IA, Jan. 2, 2008. UPDATED Jan 3: 5:30 pm "Special interests control our government while members of the middle class who work hard and play by the rules are left behind." "Alliance for a New America" website Our focus today is Alliance for a New America, the shadowy advocacy group that praises John Edwards as the candidate who will sweep the "special interests" out of Washington. The organization emerged out of nowhere over the last few weeks with a series of mailers and television and radio ads in Iowa that have cost over $1 million, and seems likely to recede back into the shadows as soon as the election is over. Edwards has said he has no influence over the group, even though his former manager, Nick Baldick, has been identified as its organizing genius. Hypocrisy alert? http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/edwards_and_special_interests.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/edwards_and_special_interests.html Candidate Watch Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:00:00 -0400 Rudy Giuliani with Margaret Thatcher, September 19, 2007. One of the five "most famous" Americans? In the spirit of the holiday season, I am inviting nominations for the "Top Ten Fibs of 2007". There are two categories in the competition: "Presidential Candidates" and "Best of the Rest." Post your nominations in the comments section or use the "Contact the Fact Checker" form. Also feel free to cast a non-binding vote for your favorite fib. The deadline is Friday, Dec. 28. A panel of crack Fact Checkers will select the Top Five Fibs in each category and post them online on Monday, December 31. We will also make a Geppetto truth-telling award in the "Presidential Candidates" category. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/the_fibs_of_2007.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/the_fibs_of_2007.html Candidate Watch Mon, 24 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Johnston, IA, Dec. 17. "During the Nineties, health care inflation was kept low. In the last seven years, health care costs have doubled." --Hillary Clinton, Town Hall meeting, Johnston, IA, December 17, 2007 This is one of those cases where a politician mixes and matches data to best support his or her argument. Take a number from one data set, combine it with a figure from a different data set, add a tablespoon of political rhetoric, stir well, cook at 450 degrees (25 degrees in Iowa), and voila, we have a tasty dish for the credulous voter. Prior to serving, make sure you remove any warning labels. Hillary's goal, needless to say, was to show that life for the average American was much better under Clinton I than under Bush II. But there are other ways of cooking the stats to produce a very different taste. Pay attention while http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/hillary_bakes_some_stats.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/hillary_bakes_some_stats.html Candidate Watch Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Romney at Planned Parenthood fund-raiser, June 12, 1994. "Every piece of legislation which came to my desk [as] governor, I came down on the side of preserving the sanctity of life." --Mitt Romney, NBC "Meet the Press", December 16, 2007. It is becoming difficult for Mitt Romney to keep track of his twists and turns on the abortion issue. The photograph above shows Romney back in June 1994 during his first big political campaign, running against Sen. Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts. It was taken at a fund-raiser for the pro-abortion rights group, Planned Parenthood, in Cohasset, Mass. The woman with her back to Romney is Nicki Nichols Gamble, former president of the Massachusetts branch of Planned Parenthood, which accepted a $150 contribution from Romney's wife Ann (in a white jacket to Romney's right.) The "pro-choice" candidate for senator, and later governor, of Massachusetts is now the "pro-life" candidate for http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/mitt_romneys_flip_flop_flip.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/mitt_romneys_flip_flop_flip.html Candidate Watch Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Obama in an Indonesian 'madrassa'. "I've watched the blogs try to say that you can't trust [Obama] because he spent a little bit of time in a secular madrassa. I feel quite the opposite." --Hillary Clinton supporter Bob Kerrey, CNN 'Situation Room', December 17, 2007. "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?" --Mike Huckabee, New York Times magazine article, December 16, 2007. Sorting out truth from falsehood is the basic mission of the Fact Checker. But politics is a complicated game, and often times politicians make statements that cannot be pigeonholed so neatly. The above quotes are examples of statements that are both "true" and "false" at the same time. "True" in the sense that they are technically accurate. "False" in the sense that they create a misleading impression that can be as powerful as an outright lie. Let's analyze each of those two statements. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/true_but_false_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/true_but_false_1.html Candidate Watch Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 All political candidates make mistakes, but some mistakes are more revealing than others. A candidate's fibs and exaggerations, and his or her willingness to correct them, tell us something about that person's character and approach to campaigning. To coincide with "The Front Runners" series in the newspaper this week, The Fact Checker is taking a look at the "most revealing fibs" of each of the candidates. Last but not least: Rudy Giuliani. Sports Hall of Fame, Chicago, Dec. 7 "I brought down crime more than anyone in this country -- maybe in the history of this country -- while I was mayor of New York City...I took the crime capital of America and I turned it into the safest large city in the country." --Rudy Giuliani, Republican presidential debate, Orlando, FL, October 21, 2007. Rudy Giuliani has taken a good record in reducing crime in New York City--and tried to http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/most_revealing_fibs_rudy_giuli.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/most_revealing_fibs_rudy_giuli.html Candidate Watch Sun, 16 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Radio show, Des Moines, IA, Nov. 30 "[Wayne Dumond's] parole eligibility happened in 1992 during the time when Bill Clinton was still governor [of Arkansas.] Rather than me having an issue with that, if Hillary is the nominee, [the Dumond parole] will be as much an issue for her and for her husband as it ever will be for me." --Mike Huckabee, Hannity & Colmes Show, Fox TV, Nov. 15, 2007. The Clintons can no doubt be blamed for a lot of things that happened in Arkansas, but it is a huge stretch to blame them for the 1999 release of Wayne Dumond. A convicted rapist and alleged murderer, Wayne Dumond went on to rape and murder another woman in Missouri after he was freed from prison in Arkansas. While the decision to free him was taken by the parole board, Huckabee strongly supported it. The case has come http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/most_revealing_fibs_mike_hucka.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/most_revealing_fibs_mike_hucka.html Candidate Watch Sat, 15 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Apollo Theater, Harlem, Nov. 29. "I don't want to wake up four years from now and discover that we still have more young black men in prison than in college." --Barack Obama, fund-raiser in Harlem, NY, Nov. 29, 2007. It's baaaack! I tried to nail this myth back in October, soon after this site was launched. Obama made a very similar statement at an NAACP forum in July. He got his facts wrong then--and he is still wrong four months later. The Obama campaign has failed to respond to several requests to support or explain the candidate's statement. So let me take another bash at it. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/most_revealing_fibs_barack_oba.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/most_revealing_fibs_barack_oba.html Candidate Watch Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Speaking to students in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, November 2007. "Obviously, my position did change with regards to life. But on other issues, my positions have been very consistent with my principles and my views."--Mitt Romney, CBS "Face the nation," September 21, 2007. Of all the candidates, both Republican and Democratic, the former Massachusetts governor is most vulnerable to the charge of being a "flip-flopper." He has attempted to immunize himself from this accusation by making a virtue out of necessity, and acknowledging his most blatant U-turn, on protecting the right to abortions. But an examination of his record shows that his positions have changed on a wide variety of other issues, from immigration to gay rights to gun control. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/most_revealing_fibs_mitt_romne.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/most_revealing_fibs_mitt_romne.html Candidate Watch Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Three Republican candidates have denounced the "NAFTA superhighway". "They don't talk about it [the NAFTA superhighway], and they might not admit it, but there's been money spent on it. There was legislation passed in the Texas legislature unanimously to put a halt on it. They're planning on millions of acres taken by eminent domain for an international highway from Mexico to Canada, which is going to make the immigration problem that much worse." --Ron Paul, Republican CNN-YouTube Debate, November 28, 2007. Three of the eight Republican presidential candidates have co-sponsored a House of Representatives resolution denouncing a "NAFTA superhighway" that is supposedly a key part of a master plan to create a "North American Union." A fourth candidate, Mitt Romney, has said he has no evidence that such a plan exists but has pledged, just in case, to put a stop to it "if I am president." So what http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/a_superhighway_to_nowhere.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/a_superhighway_to_nowhere.html Candidate Watch Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Giuliani announcing fall in crime rate as mayor of New York "Under Mayor Giuliani's leadership, overall crime was cut by 56 percent, murder was cut by 66 percent, and New York City--once considered the crime capital of the country--became the safest large city in America according to the FBI." --Join Rudy 2008 website Rudy Giuliani has made the dramatic drop in the New York City crime rate a central theme of his presidential campaign. He has been critical of rivals, such as Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, for being lax on crime. Violent crimes fell sharply between 1994 and 2001 while he was mayor and have continued to fall under his successor, Michael Bloomberg. But the crime rate also fell sharply in other large U.S. cities, such as Los Angeles and Chicago. Has he exaggerated his own achievement? http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/11/rudy_the_crime_buster.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/11/rudy_the_crime_buster.html Candidate Watch Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:00:00 -0400