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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Stories by Eugene Kiely

Former Director, FactCheck.org

Texas-Size Mudballs in GOP Senate Runoff

Texas-Size Mudballs in GOP Senate Runoff
July 27, 2012

A bitter GOP primary contest in Texas for a U.S. Senate seat has come to this: an ad featuring a grieving mother who links one of the candidates to her son’s suicide.
A Texas super PAC is airing a TV ad that features a distraught mother who says Ted Cruz, a lawyer, “should be absolutely ashamed of himself” for representing a key figure in Pennsylvania’s infamous “kids for cash” scandal. In that case, two judges were convicted of taking $2.1 million from Cruz’s client in exchange for sending kids to private juvenile detention centers —

‘You Didn’t Build That,’ Uncut and Unedited

‘You Didn’t Build That,’ Uncut and Unedited
July 23, 2012

Mitt Romney and his allies have attacked President Barack Obama — often out of context — for saying, “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

American Crossroads posted a 60-second Web video called “Build” that shows small-business owners reacting to Obama’s “you didn’t build that” comment.
The Romney campaign replays Obama saying “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that” five times in a 15-second video as part of a “petition”

Sununu’s Out-of-this-World Outsourcing Claim

Sununu’s Out-of-this-World Outsourcing Claim
July 17, 2012

John Sununu claimed President Obama “outsourced a major portion of the U.S. space program to the Russians.” But it was President Bush who set NASA on a path eight years ago to retire the Space Shuttle and rely on the Russians for space travel.
“[Bush] Administration policy is to retire the shuttle in 2010 and purchase crew transport from Russia,” as then-NASA Administrator Michael Griffin once explained.
To be sure, Obama ended the Space Shuttle program,

Obama, Romney Surrogates Spin Jobs Data

Obama, Romney Surrogates Spin Jobs Data
July 10, 2012

A lackluster jobs report for June generated a flurry of false and misleading statements on the Sunday talk shows by surrogates for Obama and Romney:

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, falsely claimed U.S. automakers “had a record June … 7,000 auto jobs created.” It’s true that 7,000 automotive jobs were created, but it’s not a record for June or any other month.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley challenged Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s statement that the U.S.

Obama’s ‘Outsourcer’ Overreach

Obama’s ‘Outsourcer’ Overreach
June 29, 2012

Obama accuses Romney in a series of TV ads of being a “corporate raider” who “shipped jobs to China and Mexico,” asking if voters want to elect an “outsourcer in chief.” But some of the claims in the ads are untrue, and others are thinly supported.

Democratic PAC Distorts Facts in Virginia Senate Race

Democratic PAC Distorts Facts in Virginia Senate Race
June 21, 2012

A Democratic super PAC distorts some facts in a TV ad that compares the records of former Sen. George Allen and former Gov. Tim Kaine, who are running against each other for an open Senate seat in Virginia. The Majority PAC ad contains exaggerations on Medicare, federal deficit spending, state spending cuts and Virginia’s business environment:

The ad blames Allen for creating “a massive federal deficit.” Actually, he was only one of 100 senators, and spending bills at that time routinely passed with bipartisan support.

Romney’s Immigration Exaggeration

Romney’s Immigration Exaggeration
June 18, 2012

Mitt Romney exaggerates when he says President Obama “did nothing on immigration” for three and a half years, even when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Obama supported and lobbied for the DREAM Act, which would have created a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. The bill passed the House in December 2010, but failed in the Senate largely because of Republican opposition.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and presumptive Republican presidential nominee,

Obama’s Economic Sleight of Hand

Obama’s Economic Sleight of Hand
June 15, 2012

In Cleveland, President Barack Obama claimed he created more private-sector jobs in the past 27 months than President George W. Bush created “during the entire seven years before this crisis.” But that’s like comparing apples and mangoes. The president is absolving himself of responsibility for the savage recession he inherited, while assigning to Bush responsibility for the recession that began within weeks of his taking office in 2001.
The fact is, the economy has gained just about the same number of private-sector jobs (Obama’s preferred measure) in the 27 months since the most recent job slump hit bottom as it did in the 27 months following the bottom of the first Bush slump.