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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Obama’s ‘Truth Team’ Wrong on GOP Donor

Obama’s ‘Truth Team’ Wrong on GOP Donor

The Obama “Truth Team” blames GOP donor Thomas O’Malley’s refinery company for helping to “drive gas prices up this year by curtailing gas production.” But the facts are the exact opposite. The Energy Information Administration credits PBF Energy for preventing a price spike in the Northeast this year by opening a refinery in Delaware — partially offsetting the loss of production from two other Philadelphia-area refineries that have closed.
The “truth team” also claimed that one event —

‘Life of Julia’ Not So Realistic

The Obama campaign’s fictitious portrayal of a woman’s life under the president’s policies versus those of Mitt Romney exaggerates the impact of the federal health care law.
Read about other claims in the “Julia” slide show in our May 8 article, “ ‘The Life of Julia,’ Corrected.”

Kids and Preexisting Conditions

An Obama campaign video wrongly implies that 17 million kids with preexisting conditions were being denied health insurance before the federal law was passed.
Read more about the Obama administration’s claim in our March 21 article, “Obama ‘Road’ Film Takes Some Detours.”

Obama Misrepresents Ryan’s Plan

The president got a key point wrong when he attacked Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan for Medicare.
Read more about Obama’s claims in “Fall Preview: Obama vs. Romney (and Ryan),” April 6.

Lemon-Picking Bain Capital, Obama-style

Lemon-Picking Bain Capital, Obama-style

President Obama and a super PAC that supports him are stealing a page from Newt Gingrich and Ted Kennedy in running TV ads and web videos that slam Mitt Romney for his years at Bain Capital. And, like Gingrich and Kennedy before him, Obama is lemon-picking — that is, highlighting the venture capital firm’s failed businesses and ignoring its successful ones.
Both Obama and the super PAC Priorities USA Action spotlight two businesses — Ampad and GS Industries —

A Bogus Tax Attack Against Obama

A Bogus Tax Attack Against Obama

The latest multimillion-dollar attack ad from Crossroads GPS claims President Obama  broke a promise to not increase taxes for families making less than $250,000 a year. That’s almost entirely false.
The truth is that Obama repeatedly cut taxes for such families, first through a tax credit in effect for 2009 and 2010, and beginning in 2011, through a reduction in the payroll tax that is worth $1,000 this year to workers earning $50,000 a year.

Peddling Innuendo, Exaggerations on ‘Obama’s Wall Street’

Peddling Innuendo, Exaggerations on ‘Obama’s Wall Street’

American Future Fund continues to exaggerate the facts in a new round of TV ads attacking President Obama’s ties to Wall Street. We do give the group partial credit, however, for correcting a misstatement from one ad it has re-released. It gets “partial credit” because the group corrected the error once in the revised ad, but then repeated the error elsewhere in the same ad. And the group didn’t make any revisions to address other gross misstatements in the ad.

Do ‘Most Americans’ Agree with Romney on Gay Marriage?

Do ‘Most Americans’ Agree with Romney on Gay Marriage?

The Republican party chairman claims “most Americans” agree with Mitt Romney “that marriage ought to be defined between one man and one woman.” Americans are closely divided on the issue. Various polls show either a slight plurality or majority of Americans support same-sex marriages, although sometimes within the margin of error.
This much is clear: American attitudes have been trending in support of gay marriage for the past few years, as this Gallup poll chart shows:
Reince Priebus,

Group Skews Facts on Obama’s ‘Shameless’ Statements

Group Skews Facts on Obama’s ‘Shameless’ Statements

A group claiming to be backed by veterans has gone too far in a viral Web video that portrays the president as a glory hog after Osama bin Laden’s death.
We cannot dispute the video’s larger point: That President Obama is using Bin Laden’s killing to score political points. But the video – produced by a former Bush-Cheney campaign operative and boasting more than 1 million hits on YouTube — misleads by:

Claiming the Washington Post criticized Obama for having the “Shameless Gall” to score political points.

Romney’s ‘Gross’ Exaggeration on ‘Obamacare’

Romney’s ‘Gross’ Exaggeration on ‘Obamacare’

Mitt Romney falsely claims government will “constitute … almost 50 percent” of the U.S. economy when the new federal health care law takes full effect. But Romney gets to 50 percent by erroneously counting all health care spending — private and public — as “effectively under government control once Obamacare is fully implemented,” as his spokesman put it.
That’s nonsense — just as it was two years ago, when Rep. Michele Bachmann made a similar bogus claim.