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The Politics Blog
Brad Shannon maintains this blog. He is political editor at The Olympian and can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@theolympian.com.
Here’s some belated FactCheck help with yesterday’s debate
If last night’s vice-presidential debate is still giving you headaches because of all of the distorted statements made, here’s some FactCheck.org to the rescue. Better than aspirin in some cases.
To get the full report, click here.
I’m only sorry I didn’t get this link up sooner.
The nonpartisan group put out its list of canards from Sen. Joe Biden and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and they certainly didn’t have to look hard. The web site is the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s project at the University of Pennsylvania.
Here are just a couple of whoppers the group identified:
· Palin repeated a false claim that Obama once voted in favor of higher taxes on “families” making as little as $42,000 a year. He did not. 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.
· Biden said four times that McCain had voted 20 times against funding alternative energy. However, in analyzing the Obama campaign's list of votes after the first presidential debate, we found the number was actually 11. In the other instances the Obama-Biden campaign cites, McCain voted not against alternative energy but against mandatory use of alternative energy, or he voted in favor of allowing exemptions from these mandates.
Both candidates provided plenty of fodder — from their misstatements about tax votes to distorted claims about Iraq troop levels and tax surpluses, the willingness of candidates to meet with foreign leaders and the cost of rival health-care proposals.
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