Monthly Archives: December 2007

Romney on Huckabee II

Summary Romney launched another negative ad in Iowa this week, where the Republican presidential candidate has been battling the new front-runner, Huckabee. This time, Romney attacks Huckabee’s record on methamphetamine laws and the clemencies he granted as governor of Arkansas. We found that: The ad says Romney "got tough on …
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Not Working 4 Edwards

Summary A new ad sponsored by a labor union PAC in support of Democratic presidential candidate Edwards implies that the closing of an Iowa Maytag factory and the loss of 1,800 jobs are due to "tax breaks to companies that move jobs offshore." And it says Edwards would end such …
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Presidents Who Owned Slaves

Q: Who was the last U.S. president to own slaves? A: Zachary Taylor owned slaves while in office. U.S. Grant owned a slave he freed in 1859, long before becoming president.

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Members of Congress Pay Social Security Taxes

Q: Do members of Congress pay Social Security taxes? A: Yes, ever since 1984.

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Defining Enemy Combatant

Q: What is an enemy combatant? A: "Enemy combatant" is shorthand for people who are fighting unlawfully. But no one is quite sure exactly what that means.

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Romney on Huckabee

Summary  An ad by Romney strains the facts in attempting to portray a stark contrast between him and Huckabee. The ad says both Romney and Huckabee are "pro-life," which is true now but glosses over Romney’s recent conversion. The ad says "the difference" between the two is that Romney "vetoed …
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Democrats Debate in Iowa

Summary In the final Democratic debate in Iowa, we found: Richardson claimed “enormous progress” in New Mexico education, when in fact the state’s eighth-grade reading scores have slipped and remain among the worst in the U.S. Richardson exaggerated the extent to which his state’s teacher salaries increased. Richardson said one-third …
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Republicans Debate in Iowa

Summary In the Dec. 12 Republican presidential debate in Des Moines: Arizona Sen. John McCain promised to make the U.S. “oil independent” within five years, a goal experts say can’t be achieved. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney claimed American students score in the bottom quarter among industrial nations, but they …
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Bush: The Constitution a ‘Goddamned Piece of Paper’?

Q: Did President Bush call the Constitution a "goddamned piece of paper"? A: Extremely unlikely. The Web site that reported those words has a history of quoting phony sources and retracting bogus stories.

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Lost in Translation?

Summary The Republican presidential candidates met Sunday evening in Florida for a forum hosted by the Spanish-language media company Univision Communications. We found a few missteps in what the candidates had to say to Spanish-speaking voters:  Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee made some incorrect and questionable claims about Americans who …
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