McCain charged that Obama has said he would “attack Pakistan.” What he really said, on Aug. 1, 2007, was: “It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.”
As we noted in February, when Sen. Hillary Clinton criticized Obama for his remarks, that’s pretty much what the U.S.
‘Dishonorable’
Summary
A McCain-Palin ad calls Obama "dishonorable," while distorting his words and votes on troop funding.
It accuses him of saying "our troops in Afghanistan" are just bombing villages and killing civilians. What Obama said, in context, was a criticism of U.S. military strategy, and not of American troops.
It accuses Obama and "Congressional liberals" of voting repeatedly to cut off funding for troops, "increasing the risk on their lives." In fact, the votes were for bringing the troops home,
Obama’s Brother in Kenya
Q: Is Obama’s brother really dirt poor in Kenya and living on a dollar a day?
A: CNN tracked down George Obama, and he said that he was "brought up well" and "live[s] well now."
Vets for Freedom Exercise Freedom to Mislead
The right-leaning Vets for Freedom, in an effort to drum up support for a resolution heralding “the strategic success of the troop surge in Iraq,” released this ad Oct. 1 in California. The ad, which criticizes Sen. Barack Obama, represents a $2.2 million buy – the largest statewide airtime purchase by the organization to date:
But the ad is off on claims we’ve already addressed, and it’s misleading on a few new ones.
It claims that Obama “skipped 45 percent of Senate votes.”
Biden on Hezbollah, and other late debate goodies
In today’s Washington Post, Michael Dobbs, a.k.a. The Fact Checker, writes about a few more stumbles from the debate, including a couple items that we didn’t have in our story on Friday.
Dobbs, a former diplomatic reporter, says Sen. Joe Biden was wrong when he said the U.S. and France “kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon.” He was correct in saying that there was talk of sending NATO forces to the country in 2006.
Candidates’ Congressional Past
Q: How long have Obama and McCain been in Congress?
A: Obama has been in the U.S. Senate since January 2005. McCain joined the House in Jan. 1983 and the Senate four years later. A chain e-mail that purports to show their time in Congress give a bogus comparison.
FactChecking Biden-Palin Debate
Summary
Biden and Palin debated, and both mangled some facts.
Palin mistakenly claimed that troop levels in Iraq had returned to “pre-surge” levels. Levels are gradually coming down but current plans would have levels higher than pre-surge numbers through early next year, at least.
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,
The Full Fact-Check of the V.P. Debate
We posted several items to The Wire last night as Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden were debating. But in the wee hours of Friday, we also posted a full article on the misleading statements and factual errors we found in their exchange. See our story on the v.p. debate at FactCheck.org:
FactChecking Biden-Palin Debate
October 3, 2008
The candidates were not 100 percent accurate. To say the least.
Who’s to Blame for the Financial Crisis?
Two new ads point fingers: MoveOn.org pins the blame on Sen. John McCain’s advisers. The McCain-Palin campaign says it’s Obama and Democrats in Congress. We say both are wrong.
See our full article, posted on our main site, FactCheck.org, for more on these misleading TV spots:
Who Caused the Economic Crisis?
October 1, 2008
McCain in the vanguard of mortgage reform?
Sarah Palin says that McCain sounded the alarm on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago. Our colleagues at PolitiFact questioned that claim, calling it “barely true.” Palin’s referring to a bill that would have increased oversight on Fannie and Freddie. McCain signed onto that bill as a cosponsor, but PolitiFact says it wouldn’t have lessened the current economic crisis. And in our recent article about assigning blame for the economic crisis, we add that by the time McCain added his name to the bill,