Monthly Archives: November 2008

40% of Americans Pay No Taxes?

Posted on November 7, 2008

Q: Do 40 percent of Americans pay no taxes? A: About 38 percent of households have zero or negative income tax liability, but they pay other federal taxes.

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No Personal Use of Campaign Money

Posted on November 5, 2008

Q: Can the presidential candidates keep their campaign money? A: No. They can donate any contributions they haven’t spent to charities or political parties, and they can pay leftover campaign bills. The big rule is: no personal use.

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2008 FactCheck Awards

Posted on November 4, 2008

Politics is bizarre. Nobody knows that better than we do. But sometimes the real twisted weirdness is subtle and complicated, taking days of research and interviews to tease out – and other times it’s right on the surface, in the form of a hippie in a suit and tie or a close-up shot of dog feces. For those readers who’ve stuck with us through a lot of in-depth reporting on complex issues, we offer these just-for-fun awards for some of the most entertaining, most egregious, most off-the-wall or just plain grossest ads this election cycle.
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Closing Arguments: Obama

Posted on November 3, 2008

The Obama-Biden campaign’s closing arguments have included some oft-repeated but still unlikely promises. Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, meanwhile, served up some new misleading claims in the waning days of the campaign. We examine their final pitch to voters in another article, “Closing Arguments: McCain.” Here we take one last look at Sen. Barack Obama’s claims.
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Closing Arguments: McCain

Posted on November 3, 2008

With just hours remaining before Election Day, both the Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin campaigns are making their final pitch for your votes. Sen. Barack Obama hopes to hold off a late-inning McCain rally by repeating several unlikely promises, which we examine in another article, “Closing Arguments: Obama.” Meanwhile, hoping to prove the pollsters wrong, John McCain and Sarah Palin flog some new attempts to cast doubt on Obama’s character; one concerns a seven-year-old interview and another, a five-year-old video.
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Advertising Money: McCain vs. Obama

Posted on November 3, 2008

Q: Who spent more money on advertising, McCain or Obama? A: Overall, Obama has outspent McCain by nearly 3-to-1, but in the closing week it’s been closer to 5-to-1.

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It’s Official: Obama “Born in the U.S.A.”

Posted on November 1, 2008

Of all the nutty rumors, baseless conspiracy theories and sheer disinformation that we’ve dealt with at FactCheck.org during campaign 2008, perhaps the goofiest is the claim that Barack Obama is not a “natural-born citizen” and therefore not eligible to be president under the constitution. This claim was first advanced by …
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