Facts Are Lost in GOP Campaign | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

Facts Are Lost in GOP Campaign

The political cartoon (?) in the Sept. 18 edition of the Oregonian was right on! McCain is pointing to a graph saying "The Fundamentals Are

The political cartoon (?) in the Sept. 18 edition of the Oregonian was right on! McCain is pointing to a graph saying "The Fundamentals Are Strong." The graph shows "LIES" up, "BALDFACED LIES" up, "WHOPPERS" up, "DENIAL OF OBJECTIVE REALITY" up, and "CANARDS" up! Palin is looking on with a big smile. Let's check for facts: Palin's acceptance speech "trips up on her facts, and Guiliani and Huckabee have their own stumbles on Night 3 of the Republican confab" (Source: www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/gop_covent'n)

Summary:

"Sarah Palin's much awaited speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night may have shown she could play the role of attack dog, but it also showed her to be short on facts when it came to touting her own record and going after Obama's.

We found Rudy Guiliani, who introduced her to be as factually challenged as he sometimes was back when he was in the race. But Mike Huckabee may have laid the biggest egg of all.


Palin may have said "Thanks, but no thanks" on the Bridge to Nowhere, though not until Congress had pretty much killed it already. But there was a sharp turnaround from the position she took during her gubernatorial campaign, and the town where she was mayor received lots of earmarks during her tenure.

Palin's accusation that Obama hasn't authored "a single major law or even a reform" in the U.S. Senate or the Illinois Senate is simply not a fair assessment. Obama has helped push through major ethics reforms in both bodies, for example.

The Alaska governor avoided some of McCain's false claims about Obama's tax program - but her attacks still failed to give the whole story.

Giuliani distorted the time line and substance of Obama's statements about the conflict between Russia and Georgia. In fact, there was much less difference between his statements and those of McCain than Giuliani would have us believe.

Giuliani also said McCain had been a fighter pilot. Actually, McCain's plane was the A-4 Skyhawk, a small bomber. It is the only plane he trained in or flew in combat, according to McCain's own memoir.

Finally, Huckabee told conventioneers and TV viewers that Palin got more votes when she ran for Mayor of Wasilla than Biden did running for president. Not even close. The tally: Biden, 79,754 despite withdrawing from the race after the Iowa caucuses. Palin, 909 in her 1999 race, 651 in 1996"

Refer to the source above for the remaining 5 1/2 pages. It gets better.

Bob Bates

Comments (5)
Add a Comment
For info on print and digital advertising, >> Click Here