At Debate, GOP Candidates Play Fast And Loose With Facts
The following piece is published on Iowa Independent as well as HuffPost's OffTheBus.
This is a companion piece to an analysis of Wednesday's Des Moines Register Republican Presidential Debate.
Factcheck.org, a non-partisan organization that reviews candidate's claims during public events, pointed to six statements made during Wednesday's debate that were worth challenging. They include:
* McCain's promise to make the U.S. "oil independent" within five years, a goal experts say can't be achieved.
"There's just no way," Frank Verrastro, director of the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Factcheck.org. "You can't institute technological change that quickly. Verrastro points out that the U.S. couldn't ramp up alternative fuels that quickly. "It takes 15 years now to turn over the car fleet," he says.
Verrastro's organization and the National Petroleum Council issued a report this summer, commissioned by the secretary of energy, that found the U.S. could reduce its reliance on oil imports by a third by 2030 if it instituted various measures, such as increasing fuel efficiency, domestic sources of oil and non-petroleum fuels.
* Romney's claim that American students score in the bottom quarter among industrial nations.
"Our kids score in the bottom 10 or 25 percent in exams around the world among major industrial nations." That's not so. Actually, the U.S. ranked closer to the 50th percentile than the bottom quarter, according to the most recent rankings by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an internationally standardized study administered to15-year-old schoolchildren in 57 countries.
Students in several nations were tested in 2006. In science, the U.S. ranked 29th out of 57, or at the 49th percentile. And in math, the U.S. ranked 35th out of 57, or at the 39th percentile. The U.S. was not ranked in reading for 2006 because of a testing misprint, but in the previous round of testing in 2003 U.S. students again landed near the middle, scoring 15th out of 29, or at the 48th percentile.
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If Romney's take on those test stats were true,and we know they aren't, wouldn't it be pretty damning of NCLB?
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In the words of former presidential candidate, Stehpen Colbert -
"Reality has a well-known liberal bias."
TO: Ex-Gov Mitt Romney and Ex-Gov Michael Huckabee. Other Presidential Candidates December 13, 2007 The ConNOSERVEatives of the GOP
PSALM 41:
"I will heal him on his sickbed and cure all his ailments if he is kind to the poor." The Lord believes in healthcare. Therefore it is not socialism. You were wrong GOP. When the cities grew people demanded services for themselves as healthcare,transportation,fire and police protection, playgrounds,libraries and thus put in 3 city form of governments to meet these demands. It is Democracy to give healthcare to people too. You were wrong!
SOCIAL SECURITY IS NOT CHARITY, BUT LIKE AN ANNUITY PAID ON AN INSURANCE POLICY.
In 1935 Congress put in the LAW of Social Security because local charities and governments could no longer provide for people during the depression when men could not find work. There must be a 2/3rds vote by States' Legislators to change this LAW. Vanza Devereaux,Government of a Free Nation. Yet, no one objects to the President now giving the most deduction ever to Social Security cost of living increase. They worked hard to give to Social Security from their paychecks.
Furthermore, no one compassionately objects to Pres. Bush also stating no cost of living increase for homeless on TV 2005. What will happen to them GOP? If you respect the U.S. Constitutional Law, then be consistent. Consequently, they deserve their money. Minimum Wage increase is only pennies through the years. That too is nothing. Deut,"Don't make poor wait for their money they need it now." You were wrong!
THE GOOD MAN
The hermit does not pay for what he gets because he enjoys all the comforts in civilization that he owes to the efforts of others, but does little good in the world. He is a distastefully self-centered man. Therefore I neither approve of him nor respect him. From English Grammar and Composition '48 para ex. By John E. Warriner also reader of college entrance examinations. Eva Hart Christian Army 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109
For a long time I thought that the Bush Administration was a perversion of the American political system and its values. I am not so sure its as a much of a perversion as it is a reflection.
Apparently a politician can say anything they want, spin any lie, and distort the truth to fit whatever audience they are playing to.
Unfortunately the Repugnants don't have an exclusive on this.
Can you imagine a government with any of these clowns as president?
I knew I should have listened in 68' when I was warned about bad acid. Just a joke!
Shocked! SHOCKED I tell ya! I just can't believe Republicans might lie about anything!
GOP candidates play fast and loose with the facts?
In related stories the sky was reported as being blue and researchers have determined the ocean to be wet and salty.
C'mon!!! The GOP playing foot loose with the facts? No way.
"GOP play fats and loose with the fact"...no shit!!! That's nothing new.
The most shameless lie I heard early on is Thompson admitting that our nine trillion dollar national debt was a burden put upon our children but he failed to acknowledge the tax cuts, GOP pork or the war and blamed it on 'entitlement' spending!!!
This isn't a matter of opinion, it is clear slander against those who don't benefit from our very slanted playing field, while never hinting that the real wasted billions go to the welfare for the rich. Of course, the GWOT is the biggest ripoff but nine out of ten in the GOP won't admit to that.
Christian charity and good stewardship are obviously Democratic faults and excuses to run up debt. The idea that Dems would want a safety net to keep the elderly warm and dry and the poor fed and our children healthy is not only sinfully wasteful, it's Communism!
Acceptable conservative thought used to refer to excess labor as expendable and their starvation as nature's course. Now they just blame the poor for being so, ignoring that the system they benefit from requires four to five percent being jobless. The GOP obviously is the party of hypocrisy!
Facts are like Kryptonite to a Republican.
Facts are for losers.
We're Republicans and we don't need no stinking facts. We make up facts and say what we want without forethought.
Looks like they are continuing the Bush-Cheney-Rovian tradition of just telling bald-faced lies, because a few sheep will believe it.
In fact, the bigger the lie, the more likely the dumbest sheep will swallow.
Facts what facts these guys listen to Rush and FOX Noise
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Posted December 13, 2007 | 08:06 AM (EST)