Bad Deeds for 10-3-2008

Posted on October 3, 2008 by Jim Vogas

Does Obama almost always vote with his party?
The Statement: Gov. Sarah Palin said at the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate that Sen. Barack Obama has “pretty much only voted along his party lines. In fact, 96 percent of his votes have been solely along party line.”
Verdict: True. Congressional Quarterly examined Obama’s votes in the Senate. According to the analysis, Obama has indeed voted with the Democratic Party 96 percent of the time. But this means that Obama voted against the ideology that got us into all these messes.

Is Obama willing to meet with Iran’s Ahmadinejad?
The Statement: Gov. Sarah Palin said at the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate that Sen. Barack Obama “would be willing to meet with” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “without preconditions being met first.”
Verdict: Misleading. While Obama has said he wouldn’t rule out meeting with any foreign leader, he never specifically said he’d meet with the Iranian president.

Did Afghan general say ‘surge principle’ won’t work?
The Statement: Sen. Joe Biden said at the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate that “our commanding general in Afghanistan said the surge principle in Iraq will not work in Afghanistan.”
Verdict: True. Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was quoted on Oct. 2 in The Washington Post as saying that “no Iraq-style ‘surge’ of forces will end the conflict” in Afghanistan, even though more U.S. troops are needed to take on a growing insurgency. “Afghanistan is not Iraq,” McKiernan said in Washington on Oct. 1. He also said “the word I don’t use for Afghanistan is ‘surge.’ ” He called for a “sustained commitment” leading to a political and not just a military solution. (And Palin got the name of the General wrong in her response.)

Is it true Obama ‘still can’t admit the surge works’?
The Statement: During the vice-presidential debate in St. Louis on Thursday, Oct. 2, Republican nominee Gov. Sarah Palin criticized Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s opposition to the military “surge” in Iraq and said, “The surge worked. Barack Obama still can’t admit the surge works.”
Verdict: False. Obama has said the surge “succeeded beyond our wildest dreams” from a military perspective.

Did Palin cut taxes in Alaska?
The Verdict: True, but incomplete. She cut some taxes in both posts, but raised others.

Does McCain want to deregulate health care?
The Statement: During the vice presidential debate on Oct. 2, Democratic nominee Joe Biden described Republican presidential nominee John McCain as a long-time supporter of deregulation of the banking industry and added, “As a matter of fact, John recently wrote an article in a major magazine saying that he wants to do for the health care industry (is) deregulate it and let the free market move like he did for the banking industry.”
Verdict: Misleading. In the current issue of a magazine for the American Academy of Actuaries, McCain discussed a change he wants to bring to the health care market: allowing people to buy plans across state lines. “Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation,” he wrote in the magazine called “Contingencies.” McCain does want to overhaul state oversight of health care, but the deregulation he is calling for is not nearly as extensive as what was done to the banking system. (How much, if any, would be good?)

Did Obama vote to cut funds for troops?
The Statement: At an Oct. 2 debate in St. Louis, Missouri, Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin was talking about support for U.S. troops overseas. “I know that the other ticket opposed this surge â€” in fact, even opposed funding our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama voted against funding troops after promising that he would not do so,” she said.
Verdict: Misleading. Obama supported a different version of the troop-funding plan â€” one that McCain spoke against.

Did Sen. Joe Biden say raising taxes is ‘patriotic’?
The Statement: Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking at the vice presidential debate on Oct. 2, asserted that Sen. Joe Biden recently said “higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying for higher taxes is patriotic.”
The Verdict: Misleading. Biden actually said those who earn more than $250,000 a year during an Obama administration would pay more in taxes that would be used to help the middle class.

Is Obama proposing $860 billion+ in new spending?
The Statement: At a campaign stop Monday in Columbus, Ohio, Sen. John McCain said Sen. Barack Obama “has proposed more than $860 billion in new spending.”
Verdict: Misleading. The figure McCain gave is based on his campaign’s tally of the costs of numerous programs Obama has discussed, but ignores the savings from other policy changes Obama is calling for.

Did Obama vote 94 times for higher taxes?
The Statement: At a debate Thursday, Oct. 2 in St. Louis, Missouri, Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin charged Democrat Sen. Barack Obama of supporting higher taxes. “Barack had 94 opportunities to side on the people’s side and reduce taxes, and 94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction â€” 94 times.”
Verdict: Misleading. Palin’s summary ignores the fact that some of the votes were for measures to lower taxes for many Americans, while increasing them for a much smaller number of taxpayers. The total also includes multiple votes on the same measures and budget votes that would not directly lead to higher taxes.

Do Obama and Biden oppose ‘clean coal?’
The Statement: At a debate Thursday, Oct. 2 in St. Louis, Missouri, Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin charged that Sen. Joe Biden, is against “clean coal” technology.
Verdict: Misleading. The partial Biden quotes but leave out the full context of his comments. The Obama campaign supports “clean coal” technology and building plants using the new technology.

Did Obama help take power from lobbyists?
The Statement: Sen. Barack Obama, speaking at campaign event on September 30 in Reno, Nevada, said he would make health care and financial reforms. “And I will take power away from the corporate lobbyists who think they can stand in the way of these reforms” he said. “I’ve done it in Illinois, I’ve done it in Washington and I will do it again as president.”
Verdict: True. Obama has supported and helped shape legislation cracking down on all lobbyists.
Summary: I leave as an exercise for the reader to count up the misleading statements by each side. More examples :

Palin’s Critique of Dick Cheney – As part of Katie Couric’s interview series with both VP candidates, Palin and Joe Biden were asked to name the best and worst things that Cheney has done over the last eight years. The responses stood in stark contrast, to say the least.

Biden offered a withering critique of Cheney, charging that he had “done more harm than any other single elected official in my memory in terms of shredding the Constitution,” citing the vice president’s promotion of “torture as a policy” and the idea of the unitary executive.

Palin’s response: “Worst thing, I guess, that woulda been the duck hunting accident, where, you know, that was, that was an accident. And that was made into a caricature of him, and that was kind of unfortunate.”