The Whoppers of 2008—The Sequel

McCain: The ACORN Fables
In another attempt to paint groups and people with whom Obama has some connection in as unsavory a light as possible, McCain has gone after the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. And we've gone after him, for an ad accusing the group of "massive voter fraud" and for saying in the final presidential debate that ACORN is "now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

Both claims are breathtakingly inaccurate. There's a huge difference between voter fraud and voter registration fraud. And while ACORN, which hires part-time, $8-an-hour canvassers to go door-to-door and register people to vote, has had widespread problems with phony registrations invented by employees who don't want to work, the problem has never been that it sent people to the polls using bogus identities or to vote in any other fraudulent manner. Even the Republican prosecutor of the largest ACORN case to date said the shenanigans of ACORN workers were "not intended to permit illegal voting."

To be sure, Obama's interactions with the group have been greater than he has let on. But whether those ties can accurately be called "long and deep," as McCain's ad claims, is highly questionable.

ACORN Accusations  October 18

FactChecking Debate No. 3  October 16

Health Care Hardball
Understanding the candidates' health care plans may seem almost as difficult as convincing your insurer to pay for an annual physical. And it's not made any easier when Obama and McCain misrepresent each other's proposals. We found an Obama ad perpetrating the whopper that McCain's plan contains the "largest middle-class tax increase in history." It's true that McCain would, for the first time, require workers to pay federal income tax on the value of their employer-provided health insurance. But that's offset by the tax credits he'd provide of up to $2,500 per individual and $5,000 per couple or family – and most people would come out ahead.

But the McCain campaign and Republican National Committee have gone after Obama's plan with a gigantic deception of their own, which they offered in a radio ad we dissected. Obama would "rob 50 million employees of their health coverage," the ad says. We flagged that statement for grossly mischaracterizing an analysis of a plan that wasn't even Obama's. In reality, two prominent studies found that Obama's plan would produce a net increase in the number of employees with health coverage through their jobs. Under McCain, according to the same studies, there would be a net decrease.

In addition, McCain has repeatedly said that Obama wants to "take over the health care of America," as he said in the third debate between the candidates. "[H]is object is a single-payer system." That's not true, either. While the Democrat has remarked that he'd probably favor a single-payer design if he were building a health care system from scratch, he's said several times that at this point, it makes more sense to improve what's currently in place – and that's what his plan would aim to do.

Health-Care Spin  October 14

FactChecking Debate No. 3  October 16