VP Debate - getting their facts straight

Watch Sarah Palin face off with Joe Biden last night? I lost count how many times each of them claimed that what the other said was not true. So, I have turned to my trusty fact checking sites for the VP debate - FactCheck.org and - PolitiFact.com - a cooperative effort of Congressional Quarterly and the St. Petersburg Times.

So, did Barak Obama vote to increase taxes “families” making as little as $42,000 a year as Sarah Palin claimed? He did not. According to FactCheck.org, "the budget bill in question called for an increase only on singles making that amount, but a family of four would not have been affected unless they made at least $90,000 a year."

Did John McCain really say, as Joe Biden claimed last night, that "he wouldn't even sit down with the government of Spain, a NATO ally that has troops in Afghanistan with us now."? According to Politifact.com, not really, but rather "McCain refused to commit."

What I really like about both of these sites is that they give you links to follow up the sources of their information so we can make our own judgments.





Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Fact-Checking Friday's Debate

Here are a few of the claims made by Senators McCain and Obama in Friday's presidential debate, and resources for checking their accuracy.

Factcheck.org and the Washington Post's Fact Checker blog each have their fact-checking for the whole debate on a single page, so those two links are only provided here. PolitiFact has separate pages for each claim, which are linked to individually.

- The kerfuffle over whose position on talking to Iran is most like Henry Kissinger's.
The answer is nuanced. Here is Kissinger's reaction.

- Obama's tax plans. Obama said that he would give 95% of people a tax cut. McCain said that Obama had voted to increase taxes on people making as little as $42,000 per year.
The answer to the latter depends on whether a vote on a budget resolution counts.

- McCain: "The average South Korean is 3 inches taller than the average North Korean."
This is true.

- McCain: Pakistan was a "failed state" before Musharraf came to power.
This was not answered by any of the fact-checking sites mentioned, but using "a country in social and economic collapse where the government no longer exercises authority" as a definition for a "failed state," this AP article calls the statement false.

Several more claims are fact-checked on the sites mentioned.




Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat