Tag Archives: 2008 elections

The Whoppers of 2008 — The Sequel

Posted on October 31, 2008

Summary The last five weeks have brought so many ads we feel like we’re drinking from a fire hose – and we’ll bet you’re pretty saturated, too. Since our first "Whoppers of 2008" piece, we’ve seen some of the same themes repeated. McCain’s campaign doesn’t tire of distorting Obama’s tax …
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More Social Security Bunk

Posted on October 30, 2008

Summary Democrats celebrated Halloween early this year, trying to spook voters with the political boogeyman of risking Social Security in the stock market. Since October 1, we have found 58 ads from Democrats and their allies attacking their Republican House and Senate opponents on the issue. They mislead in several …
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Obama’s Trade Trickery

Posted on September 26, 2008

Summary An Obama-Biden ad ties McCain to the closing of a plant in Pennsylvania. Its assertions are misleading and false: The ad says McCain "sold … out" workers whose factory closed. But there was nothing McCain, or anyone could have done. The factory was making parts for televisions that are …
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Maverick Misleads

Posted on September 4, 2008

Summary McCain's campaign launched a TV ad touting his running mate, Palin, and offering a comparison to Obama. Some of its claims are off the mark: It says Obama "gave big oil billions in subsidies and giveaways," citing his votes for a 2005 energy bill. But the bill slightly raised …
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Nonsense in New Mexico

Posted on May 29, 2008 , Updated on June 2, 2008

Rep. Steve Pearce’s campaign and an independent anti-abortion group both have attacked Rep. Heather Wilson in the hotly contested race to be the Republican nominee for an open New Mexico Senate seat. But Pearce and the group run afoul of the facts. A mailer from Pearce claims that Wilson “voted for cloning that would create human embryos specifically to be destroyed for scientific research.” Actually, she voted to make it illegal to clone humans for reproductive purposes; the bill did not address embryos to be used for research, as anti-abortion groups wanted. It’s simply false to say she voted for som
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Garden State Growth

Posted on May 29, 2008

Summary The presidential candidates aren't the only ones with election woes. New Jersey's Democratic Senate primary is slated for June 3, and both incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg and his challenger, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, are letting loose: An Andrews ad claims an editorial described Lautenberg as "doing nothing" in the …
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Giving Till They’re Blue?

Posted on April 18, 2008

Summary It’s not uncommon for GOP candidates to accuse each other of not being Republican enough. But the fight is ordinarily over issues, such as tax cuts. In Pennsylvania, two House candidates are instead attacking each other for sending money behind enemy lines. The ads they’ve launched provide a good …
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‘Dump Dennis?’

Posted on March 1, 2008

Former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is now fighting to hold onto his House seat in Cleveland, Ohio. He’s the target of a tough attack ad that says he “gives a lot of speeches” but “doesn’t get much done.” But the ad is a textbook example of deceptive political advertising – it uses dramatic-sounding numbers that, put into context, aren’t such a big deal after all
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