Another night of a Republican convention and we have another night of Factcheck revealing untrue statements. Many of these were also noted in previous posts debunking last night’s speakers. Factcheck has the following errors in their summary, with further details in the full post:
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 Giuliani, 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 that 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 had us believe.
- Giuliani also said McCain had been a fighter pilot. Actually, McCain’s plane was the A-4 Skyhawk, a small bomber. It was 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.
Let’s see
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.
Now maybe I’m dense, but Palin states “Obama hasn’t AUTHORED” In response, she is lying because he help push major reforms. Now did he AUTHOR any of this legislation, or simply become an add-on co-sponsor? If the later, then she is telling the truth, and “factcheck” doesn’t understand the definition of author.
Wayne,
Did you even bother to read Factcheck’s report which clearly reports that Obama has authored legislation in addition to pushing major reforms? They write:
Beyond the information documented by Factcheck, a quick Google search reveals that Obama authored 152 bills in the US Senate, plus many more in the Illinois legislature.
Yahoo answers cites the 152 figure with some blogs having provided lists such as here. I have not had a chance to go through all of these to verify, but even if they are somehow off by quite a few this certainly puts Palin’s claims into question. Media Matters also responded here.
I think that as GOP politicians the integrity has not been displayed. Before some of this statements were made, whoever assisted in these speeches should have verified all of the information for the opponent. This in the eys of people and media does not sit too easy. There have numerous errors and issues of concern from the Republican Party!