Q: Are the Chinese drilling off the coast of Cuba?
A: No. George Will and Vice President Cheney got that wrong. But Cuba has allowed for exploration by at least six other non-Chinese firms in the region and onshore testing and exploration by China’s Sinopec.
Year: 2008
Distorting Obama
Summary
McCain released a Web ad that distorts Obama’s positions on clean-energy innovation and nuclear power.
The ad portrays Obama as saying "no" to energy "innovation" and to "the electric car." In fact, Obama proposed a $150 billion program of research into a wide variety of clean-energy technologies last year, long before McCain proposed to award a $300 million prize for developing a commercially viable battery package capable of powering automobiles.
The ad also has Obama saying "no"
Blanket Pardons
Q: Can a president issue a blanket pardon to an individual for crimes that may have been committed in the past but have not yet been discovered?
A: Yes. That’s just what Gerald Ford did when he granted “a full, free, and absolute pardon” to Richard Nixon for crimes he “has committed or may have committed” while in office.
Obama Polishes His Resume
Summary
Obama has released his first post-primary ad, a 60-second spot that’s airing in 18 battleground states. In effect, "Country I Love" is Obama’s first ad of the general election campaign, and as such it invites scrutiny. (FactCheck will address McCain’s first general election ads in a separate article.) We don’t find this ad egregiously misleading, but it paints a picture of Obama’s accomplishments that could leave viewers with a misimpression or two.
McCain’s Power Outage
Summary
McCain has spent the week focusing on energy policy, making some surprising, and inaccurate, statements.
Among them:
He said that ending a moratorium on offshore oil drilling "would be very helpful in the short term in resolving our energy crisis." But according to a government report, offshore oil wouldn’t have much of an impact on supply or prices until 2030. Update, June 24: At a town hall event on June 23, McCain didn’t claim that offshore drilling would lower prices in the short term,
Obama and European Affairs Subcommittee
Q: Does Obama chair a Senate subcommittee that oversees the war in Afghanistan?
A: He chairs the Senate’s Subcommittee on European Affairs, which has some oversight in Afghanistan through NATO.
Obama’s Lame Claim About McCain’s Money
Summary
Obama announced he would become the first presidential candidate since 1972 to rely totally on private donations for his general election campaign, opting out of the system of public financing and spending limits that was put in place after the Watergate scandal.
One reason, he said, is that "John McCain’s campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs."
We find that to be a large exaggeration and a lame excuse.
Polar Bear Population
Q: Are there three times as many polar bears in the Arctic now as there were in the 1970s?
A: The population of polar bears today is larger than it was in the 1970s, due mainly to legislation banning polar bear hunting, but exact numbers are unclear. We couldn’t find any figures showing that the population had tripled.
Obama’s Inflated Health ‘Savings’
Summary
Obama says his health care plan will garner large savings – $120 billion a year, or $2,500 per family – with more than half coming from the use of electronic health records. And he says he’ll make that happen in his first term. We find his statements to be overly optimistic, misleading and, to some extent, contradicted by one of his own advisers. And it masks the true cost of his plan to cover millions of Americans who now have no health insurance.
Obama’s Birth Certificate
Q: Has Obama’s birth certificate been disclosed?
A: Yes. His campaign made a copy public after speculation by conservative bloggers that he might not be a “natural-born citizen.”