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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

The Whoppers of 2004

Bush and Kerry repeat discredited claims in their final flurry of ads. Here’s our pre-election summary of the misinformation we found during the Bush-Kerry presidential campaign.

Pro-Bush Puffery on Economy, Medicare

New ad claims Bush inherited an economy “already in recession” and that 41 million seniors “now have access to lower cost prescriptions.” Wrong on both counts.

Distortions Galore at Second Presidential Debate

Both candidates played loose with the facts at the second Presidential Debate in St. Louis Oct. 8. We offer a sampler of the dubious and sometimes false statements made by each of the candidates.

DNC Ad Says Bush Lost Manufacturing Jobs

The Democratic National Committee released an ad Aug. 6 saying 2.7 million manufacturing jobs had been lost under Bush. That’s true, but ignores the fact that manufacturing jobs started their decline three years before Bush took office.

Kerry Really Could Produce 10 Million New Jobs. (So Could Bush.)

John Kerry has promised that, if elected, his economic policies will produce 10 million new jobs. Some FactCheck.org subscribers have asked us why we haven’t debunked that claim, given that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counted only 8.4 million who were unemployed as of March.