FACTCHECK.ORG

GOP Convention Spin

Lieberman and Thompson make misleading claims about Obama on Day Two of the party in St. Paul.

By Viveca Novak, Brooks Jackson and Lori Robertson | factcheck.org
Sep 3, 2008 | Updated: 11:58  a.m. ET Sep 4, 2008

« Return to Article

Discuss

Member Comments

  • Posted By: joseph jacir @ 09/15/2008 7:29:43 PM

    look who is talking ....both leiberman and thompson are real actors and should be in a circus rather than in a politcal arena....we need to learn the truth from our leaders to enable us make sound judgements ...unfortunately all what we get is pure lies

  • Posted By: cm4297 @ 09/04/2008 5:12:15 PM

    Hey I just found out that Palin attended 5 colleges in 6 years. I guess that's appropriate considering the group that she is trying to unify.

    • Posted By: neppy @ 09/05/2008 4:38:51 PM

      Yeah, I'd get that fact checked. It is said she attended and graduated as a Journalism major/poli.sci minor from the state school in.....whatever state her parents left to go to Alaske. Plied her wares in a beauty contest to win scholarship money. No advanced degree in LAW as every other ELECTED candidate or also ran did have.. Obama was a college professor of constitutional law.

      • Posted By: Mimi13 @ 09/05/2008 10:06:50 PM

        It's been fact-checked. Here are the particulars.

        University of Hawaii-Hilo. Fall 1982. Never registered. Too rainy.
        Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester F. 82
        North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study Sp-F 83
        Gap Year
        University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism Fa. 84-Sp 85
        Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester F. 86
        University of Idaho - 3 semesters Sp. 86, Fa. 87, Sp. 87 - B.A. in journalism (no poli-sci minor)

        Biden College Background :

        University of Delaware - B.A. in history and B.A. in political science.
        Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

        Obama College Background :

        Occidental College - two years.
        Columbia University - B.A. political science with a specialization in international relations.
        Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna *** laude

        McCain College Background :

        United States Naval Academy - class rank 893 out of 898.

        • Posted By: Cesar @ 09/13/2008 1:51:14 PM

          A woman I talked with from Washington state (during the Bush/Gore election) actually had the nerve to say to me, straight-faced, that she would never vote for anyone smarter than herself (Gore)...and she was certainly no Stephen Hawking in the grey-matter department. If your average Joe and Jane America is carrying this brilliant election day plan we are guaranteed another 4 years of Bush Doctrine and economics wizardry.

    • Posted By: agnes82002 @ 09/04/2008 7:35:58 PM

      Do you know what colleges she attended.? Did she graduate? I was wondering why her children do not go to college? Maybe they cut off the college loans in Alaska ? Ignorance is bliss to some.

      • Posted By: irislady60 @ 09/04/2008 8:12:37 PM

        Sarah is waiting to become VP so the kids can go to college on our tax dollar. Yes, she did graduate from a college

    • Posted By: brinder @ 09/04/2008 5:19:29 PM

      So did she ever graduate?

  • Posted By: michaeledgeh2o @ 09/04/2008 6:34:30 PM

    There's that word again, "elitist" The buzzword of the RNC '08. Do you think the idea that everyone in America, no matter what their financial situation, should have access to decent health care without worry of losing their home or filing for bankruptcy is "elitist"? How about the fact that the people who pay the highest tax percentage are people making around $40,000 a year. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates pay less tax by percentage that I do. Does that seem fair to you? Does the idea that everyone should pay their fair share seem "elitist"? What about the $12,000,000,000 we're spending on a war against a country that never attacked us every month? Not to mention the 4,000 plus Americans and over 500,000 Iraqis that have been killed. Is taking care of our own before waging a false war "elitist"? Barack Obama hasn't taken a dime from lobbyists during his entire campaign. John McCain's campaign is run by them. The same lobbyists that want to maintain the status quo because it keeps them and all their cronies (the top 1% of the country that control 90% of the country's wealth) flush with cash. What about the fact that the divide between the rich and poor hasn't been this big since the great depression? I ask you, who is the real "elitist". I like to think of myself as a populist.

    • Posted By: Cesar @ 09/13/2008 1:42:36 PM

      McCain has said all along that he's a maverick and the REAL change candidate. You can see that by the way he has gone out on a limb and let even MORE lobbyists in the backdoor. That's change isn't it? He didn't say he was the candidate for better change, just change.

  • Posted By: jjcdc @ 09/04/2008 8:38:52 PM

    To poster Ralphie and the like,
    In fact, this article was republished from factcheck.org which is a NON PARTISAN organization that analysizes political ads and the like and looks for aggerations, half truths and lies coming from BOTH Republicans and Democrats and puts the truth out there.
    It is sad to see that you are so one sided that you can not open your mind to see the truth. You will put your head in the sand so as to not learn and grow and think. People like you can not listen to all sides of an argument and thoughtfully digest the information to form your own opinion. You are so stuck in your own internal narrative "I'm right!" that you can not accept that you are misinformed. I don't know why I am writing because I am sure nothing will change your "mind". I find it sad that there are so many people out there like this that won't leave their ignorance behind and educate themselves. Please do some research before you vote!

    • Posted By: Cesar @ 09/13/2008 1:35:14 PM

      It is hard to educate oneself when half the information you find in the internet are reiterations of the lies being propagated. It is like thinking that one is informed on news when all one does is watch FOX news all day. Nazi Germany wishes it had a propaganda machine that wide-reaching.

  • Posted By: Cesar @ 09/13/2008 1:24:28 PM

    Even without this article, and Jonathan Alter's article about the GOP still trying to rig elections through racist voting procedures AGAIN, there should be enough outrage from the populace of this country for the last 8 years of gross mismanagement to want to punish the republican party by dumping them for a term. If that isn't enough, check out which of the candidates wants to start ANOTHER war in Iran...

  • Posted By: knowthefacts @ 09/09/2008 9:13:36 AM

    This is from the group(GOP) who want another 4 years to mess up our lives, the lives they care very little about. Country first my rear-end! The GOP, don't give a crap "STAND UP AND FIGHT" about WHAT? I'll tell you what he means= stand up to those who want to take away all my homes, stand up to those who really care about this country because in reality, we don't give a damn and that's why they should elect US the GOP to continue the ways of president GWB, stand up to those who say we shouldn't use all of KARL ROVE TACTIC'S to WIN this elections. Because all have all of his staff is running my campaign!
    To John McScam

    Hell to the NO!

    OBAMA/BIDEN 08

  • Posted By: willnotvoteobama @ 09/08/2008 7:07:14 AM

    LMFAO McCAIN GOT A BIGGER BOUNCE! THE ROCK STAR OBAMA IS WISHING HE HAD PICKED HILARY FOR VP AND WILL REALLY WISH IT IN NOVEMBER WHEN HIS RUN TANKS! OR IT COULD BE ALL THOSE AMERICAN FLAGS THAT WERE THROWN IN THE TRASH AT MILE HIGH! WHO KNOWS BUT ITS CLEAR THAT THE POLLS SHOW McCAIN WITH A 4 PT LEAD AND HIS BOUNCE STILL GOT 2 DAYS TO GO UNTILL WE SEE IT ALL! HMMM BYE BYE OBAMA!

  • Posted By: hakken @ 09/07/2008 8:54:15 PM

    This is a great article. Finally the news is doing the job its supposed to. Polliticians need to be held accountable for what they say and only the news can put them in check.

  • Posted By: bataar_21 @ 09/06/2008 11:50:22 PM

    Why is the Republican VP nominee being protected from the press like she is a Chelsea Clinton? Well, Chelsea wasn't a VP nominee or a heartbeat away friom the presidency. Palin is. It clearly indicates how fearful they are for voters to know her fakeness. How long are they going to keep her off the press? We shall see.

  • Posted By: wildlifeusa @ 09/06/2008 11:48:32 PM

    9/11 and religion.... The connection and the answers. Please pass the video on..

    http://propagandameatgrinder.magnify.net/video/Zeitgeist-s-hrvatskim-titlom/theater#theater_title

  • Posted By: bataar_21 @ 09/06/2008 11:34:22 PM

    willnotvoteobama" You are dead wrong on Obama/ Ayers connection. Obama knew W. Ayers not as a terrorist, but as a respectable university professor and educator. If Ayers is an outcast and bad, why should he be allowed to educate Americans, in the first place. Well, to win an election, Republicans are going to refer to Ayers past, when Obama was only 8, and tie them together. Hypocritically, Reublicans are ready to forgive and forget Gadhafi's crimes on Americans. And dine with him because he has oil which Ayers hasn't. nothing.

  • Posted By: willnotvoteobama @ 09/06/2008 11:12:05 AM

    HEY WE CAN USE JOHN McCAIN'S MIDDLE NAME(SIDNEY) AND JOE BIDEN'S MIDDLE NAME(ROBINETTE) OR EVEN SARAH PALIN'S MIDDLE NAME (HEATH) BUT YOU BETTER NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT MENTIONING BARACK OBAMA'S MIDDLE NAME BECAUSE IF YOU DO THEN YOU ARE TRYING TO SCARE PEOPLE ! IT IS HUSSEIN ! THAT DON'T SCARE ME BUT HIS POLICIES DO !!

  • Posted By: gramps2008 @ 09/05/2008 1:33:23 PM

    Once again, the republicans can only offer lies and hatred towards anyone who is not with them. McCain wants change? He says he wants to everyone to "join" him and "fight" for a better America. This has the air of division instead of unification. I'm wondering what happens to those who vote against him. I served 20 years in the military, honorably discharged, drawing a military retirement, if I vote for Obama, will I be seen as Un-American? The striking differences between the two conventions are: DNC - Hope and Inspiration, RNC - Hate and desperation.

  • Posted By: brinder @ 09/05/2008 11:28:09 AM

    Any one see that giant elephant in the middle of the room? (George Bush)? No one wanted to talk about it. It is just not plausible that the same Republican party can insist they are the agents of change, while they are the ones that occupy the White house. If they are intent on change, why wait for a new president?

  • Posted By: willnotvoteobama @ 09/05/2008 9:23:27 AM

    Part 1 Who got Obama started in his political career? William Ayers, of course, is the Weather Underground bomber. And Obama began his career, his coming out party in 1995, and Ayers and Bernadine Dorns home.
    And then for, you know, some 20 years, Obama has been working with Ayers, certainly since 1995, on a series of foundations: the Annenberg Foundation and the Woods Foundation. The boards of directors together, or in the Annenberg Foundation, Ayers created it, and Obama was on it. And together they spent the money of these foundations to implement their radical socialist agenda.
    A lot of people say, no, they just know each other. They???re not friends. Just because -- you know, just because they worked on boards together.
    Obama was in 1995 going to take the seat of Alice Palmer, who is also an extreme socialist. She???s an African-American who had actually gone to Russia and had attended communist party meetings and reported on them. And it was all very much of a leftist gathering.
    Ayers and Dorns were like the stamp of approval on Obama, introducing them to their click of leftist friends for funding and for advancing his candidacy. So that very beginning was a chosen intentionally association with Ayers and Dorns to launch Obama`s career, and Obama knew exactly what he was doing picking him.
    Senator Obama is the one who???s saying, "This is just another guy in my neighborhood," but in fact, that???s not true at all. It may turn out to be that they had a much closer relationship through their work together on the Annenberg Challenge to create their ideas to control the government and its people that???s the challenge!
    His agenda -- I believe, in 2001, in which Ayers was unrepentant, saying that he wished he bombed more. And obama???s greatest influence is
    Saul Alinsky he was a radical socialist organizer. His main book was "Rules for Radicals." His methodology was you go in as a community organizer. That means, really, a rabble-rouser.
    You rub raw the discontent of the community, almost in a communist sense. You find class antagonisms. You learn to speak the grievances in the people???s own logic and language, and then you go for radical redistribution of income and wealth through gaming power and mobilizing the community. Making them think that your working for them by doing small stuff that seems to help but ultimately you gain far more than the people you help it???s a trick to get them on your side because it seems you care about them and in turn they move you to the top of the political ladder!

    • Posted By: willnotvoteobama @ 09/05/2008 9:24:30 AM

      Part 2???
      The -- the connection to Saul Alinsky. In
      Fact, Alinsky had change as his mantra. And by it, he meant radical socialist redistribution of income from the haves to the have-nots. That was the primary purpose.
      Alinsky dedicated "Rules to Radicals" to Lucifer, whom he called the first radical. And he said it was a Machiavellian approach, which means you???ll lie, do whatever you need to do to get power, because the haves were going to lose to the have-nots, who were being championed by this community organizer. (Obama)
      The theme is common that Senator Obama made in San Francisco about people are bitter, clinging to God and to guns. That is actually a paraphrase of something Saul Alinsky wrote in that same book, in "Rules for Radicals."
      A very condescending view that he has of the middle class as people who are lost, who -- he says that they turn bitter, because they cling to certain fixed points that are elusory, but very real to them. They ask questions that Alinsky considers meaningless, like what does our flag mean to you? Interestingly, something that was just said at the Republican convention. That???s Alinsky. You know,obama???s his influence coming through.
      Just take a look at his taxation policies. He wants to increase capital gains, because he says they???re unfair.
      The point is that he clings to this relationship. And he???s even defending Ayers now. His campaign is defending Ayers, despite the fact that he???s an unrepentant terrorist who set bombs and may, according to congressional testimony, may have even been involved or had knowledge of a bombing that killed somebody. That???s the important thing.
      Alinsky taught to say whatever is necessary to get power. That???s the Machiavellian approach. When Obama articulates policy positions, especially moving to the center, it may be completely calculated. We will not see the real Obama until its too late then we are going to be stuck in a radical system that will take a civil war to get out of !

  • Posted By: lb078 @ 09/05/2008 8:32:56 AM

    ha ha. the GOP really put out there what a joke the democratic ticket is. your messiah has no experience, and his VP pick has way more experience than him. isn't is sad they (media/bloggers) keep comparing obama and palin. when one is running for pres. and the other vp.

  • Posted By: lb078 @ 09/04/2008 8:19:49 PM

    wow, more media backing for obama. big surprise. where are you're counterparts that analyze every statement by obama. i seem to have missed those articles.

    • Posted By: Murray Rizberg @ 09/04/2008 9:08:19 PM

      Yes, you DID miss those articles about Obama's misleading tv advertisements. But reality has no effect on the conservative mind; it will believe whatever it wants to believe (which usually happens to coincide with what Rush Limbaugh & Fox News believe) no matter what actually happens in the real world.

      I commend Newsweek for making the GOP-created distortions the FOCUS of the story (which originated at the non-partisan factcheck.org) and not just the THROW-IN part of an article praising the brilliance of the GOP's latest campaign strategy (which, oddly, is the same as every previous GOP campaign strategy: constantly lie until the public consciousness is beaten into submission courtesy of the truth-averting mainstream media).

      • Posted By: lb078 @ 09/05/2008 8:29:47 AM

        murray, i read the news every night. why i was implying (and obviously at a level above you) is that the media has maybe written a handful of articles in the past year that are quasi anti-obama. but, everyday there are a dozen about the GOP. maybe you missed that too.

  • Posted By: Arawo4 @ 09/05/2008 12:30:56 AM

    McCain has never earned any income to make him wealthy, his living off of his father-in-laws wealth. He and his wife cannot even manage that, in his financial documents that he released, he had over $300,000.00 in credit card debt paying over 30% in interest at the age of 72yrs old. He earns less than $180,000.00 a year. How does he plan to pay for that? That is clearly the future for us all to see. It also shows that he does not have good financial advisers, he has so many houses they inherited from his in-laws why can they refinance one of them to pay lower interest and pay off the credit card debt. It shows the hypocrisy of the RNC. All the people attacking Obama do not have one hundredth of his intellect. I am baffled by their criticisms of Obama; he had run a successful campaign that all is critics did not come close to matching. The only opportunity they had to show us their leadership skills they all showed total lack of judgment and knowledge and failed woefully in every aspect of their endeavors in this quest.

    McCain went broke during his campaign
    Major Rudy Julliani of New York wasted all his election contribution on two states and lost.
    Mitt Romney wasted $34,000,000.00 (thirty four million dollars) of his own money to win less than 290 delegates.

    The only person I respect in the bunch is Mike Huchkabee. I am very happy the people of Iowa got it right, that should have been the RNC ticket. But you RNC people were listening to does PINHEADS you called your LEADERS both on Fox News, Radios and Your ignorant religious Leaders.
    Republicans please dump all these IDIOTS thwarting they know all. They are all screwed-up drug addicts.

    It is in the bible do not listen to the counsel of an idiot or a stupid man lest you become like them.
    Their rants are like those of people indoctrinating people into radical organizations. Wake-up Republicans and stop listening to all these self-prophesized messiahs claiming they know all. They are all empty barrels in a delirious state. Thank them and tell them to take a bow for all the shows and let them know they have to hurry-up the sprinklers is about to be turned on.

    Thank you.

    God bless USA

  • Posted By: Arawo4 @ 09/05/2008 12:30:19 AM

    McCain has never earned any income to make him wealthy, his living off of his father-in-laws wealth. He and his wife cannot even manage that, in his financial documents that he released, he had over $300,000.00 in credit card debt paying over 30% in interest at the age of 72yrs old. He earns less than $180,000.00 a year. How does he plan to pay for that? That is clearly the future for us all to see. It also shows that he does not have good financial advisers, he has so many houses they inherited from his in-laws why can they refinance one of them to pay lower interest and pay off the credit card debt. It shows the hypocrisy of the RNC. All the people attacking Obama do not have one hundredth of his intellect. I am baffled by their criticisms of Obama; he had run a successful campaign that all is critics did not come close to matching. The only opportunity they had to show us their leadership skills they all showed total lack of judgment and knowledge and failed woefully in every aspect of their endeavors in this quest.

    McCain went broke during his campaign
    Major Rudy Julliani of New York wasted all his election contribution on two states and lost.
    Mitt Romney wasted $34,000,000.00 (thirty four million dollars) of his own money to win less than 290 delegates.

    The only person I respect in the bunch is Mike Huchkabee. I am very happy the people of Iowa got it right, that should have been the RNC ticket. But you RNC people were listening to does PINHEADS you called your LEADERS both on Fox News, Radios and Your ignorant religious Leaders.
    Republicans please dump all these IDIOTS thwarting they know all. They are all screwed-up drug addicts.

    It is in the bible do not listen to the counsel of an idiot or a stupid man lest you become like them.
    Their rants are like those of people indoctrinating people into radical organizations. Wake-up Republicans and stop listening to all these self-prophesized messiahs claiming they know all. They are all empty barrels in a delirious state. Thank them and tell them to take a bow for all the shows and let them know they have to hurry-up the sprinklers is about to be turned on.

    Thank you.

    God bless USA

  • Posted By: ranman1 @ 09/04/2008 11:39:22 PM

    The Republicans stayed tru to themselves, and did what they usually do ...lie. There wasn't one thing the Democrats said at their convention about Bush, or McCain that wasn't true. It's also interesting that they find working in your community such a joke. I'm sure that's because none of them have done it. It's not just McCain who doesn't "get it", it's the whole Republican party.

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse