We need your help! There are a never-ending series of claims each campaign makes daily, and only so much time for our team to track lie leads. But we take this task seriously, so we need your help. There are specific comments members of each campaign make, from time to time, that appear to be lies. But we can't always find the proof right away, so we're going to list them here in question form. You can use tools like the Library of Congress' legislative tool search, Thomas, Google news search, or any other primary news search tools.
If you find some facts, add them as a comment. If you help expose a lie, we'll adjust the post, give credit where it's due, and add it to the score. And of course if you discover it's true, well note that on the entry and retire the discussion. But this is neither a battle we can, or want to, fight alone. So join us to fight the lies, and expose the truth.
Obama just said:
I wrote to Secretary Paulson, I wrote to Federal Reserve Chairman [Ben] Bernanke, and told them this is something we have to deal with, and nobody did anything about it.
A year ago, I went to Wall Street and said we’ve got to reregulate, and nothing happened.
Did it happen?
Obama said it did.
He said he did. He sang it at a VFW, so it’s possible. We’ll check the sources.
Obama just said it was.
McCain said he was. I think they took the same fundamental tact after the short conflict.
Obama just said they did. I think it was Charles Babbage. (Did he mean the Internet - that was disputably a Defense project.)
McCain just said they do.
I think he just said he did.
McCain said Obama never has.
McCain just said he did.
Obama just said they would.
McCain just said he did.
McCain just said he did.
He just said he is. We may need some third party, non-partisan sources to check on that one.
Obama just said we have.
Obama just claimed he did.
He just said he did, but it’s been widely reported he did not. (We didn’t flag it before because as a future statement he could have changed plans.) We’ll look for evidence of any categorical suspension to support his claim.
McCain just said they do. I recall that figure including part-time employees. We’re checking
McCain just said we do.
Obama just said they did.
This exchange took place at the first debate:
And we — we are spending billions of dollars on missile defense. And I actually believe that we need missile defense, because of Iran and North Korea and the potential for them to obtain or to launch nuclear weapons, but I also believe that, when we are only spending a few hundred million dollars on nuclear proliferation, then we’re making a mistake.
Obama, 9/26/08 Presidential Debate 1
McCain Responds:
But in the case of missile defense, Senator Obama said it had to be, quote, “proven.” That wasn’t proven when Ronald Reagan said we would do SDI, which is missile defense. And it was major — a major factor in bringing about the end of the Cold War.
McCain, 9/26/08 Presidential Debate 1
McCain is referring to this video where Obama said:
[I will]…cut unproven missile defense systems
Does this prove anyone to be lying?
“Now, we also have to recognize that this is a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by George Bush, supported by Senator McCain, a theory that basically says that we can shred regulations and consumer protections and give more and more to the most, and somehow prosperity will trickle down.
It hasn’t worked.”
Obama 9/27/08 First Presidential Debate
True? Lie?
Obama said they do.
Seems like they have more than $1t in US government and commercial debt (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/2793557/The-global-economy-is-at-the-point-of-maximum-danger.html & http://www.ustreas.gov/tic/mfh.txt).
Not a lie.
McCain said he did.
Obama says he did.
Thus far a review of his legislation and media in the month of April revealed no reference to any public comments from Obama regarding the brewing conflict between Georgia and Russia. But there are many private avenues for that sort of communication.
Obama and McCain are contradicting each other - someone lying. Who is it?
Update: During a discussion about meeting with Iran, on September 20, Henry Kissinger said:
Initially, yes. And I always believed that the best way to begin a negotiation is to tell the other side exactly what you have in mind and what you are — what the outcome is that you’re trying to achieve so that they have something that they can react to.
Now, the permanent members of the Security Council, plus Japan and Germany, have all said nuclear weapons in Iran are unacceptable. They’ve never explained what they mean by this. So if we go into a negotiation, we ought to have a clear understanding of what is it we’re trying to prevent. What is it going to do if we can’t achieve what we’re talking about?
But I do not believe that we can make conditions for the opening of negotiations. We ought, however, to be very clear about the content of negotiations and work it out with other countries and with our own government.
Tonight after the debate, Kissinger said to the Weekly Standard:
Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality.
However, Kissinger did previously offer what appear to be a contradictory statement. We’re waiting on a transcript of the debate to assess McCain’s statements.
Obama said they have.
McCain said there was.
McCain said it was.
Obama said we do.