Campaign Speech Fact-Checking

Source Analysis: Fact Checkers

Just because someone says it doesn’t mean that it’s true. Some websites, such as http://www.factcheck.org, are devoted entirely to documenting the false claims made by politicians, as the examples illustrate from recent debates:

• Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney falsely claimed U.S. job growth had been nearly 17 times faster than Europe's. Actually, European Union employment grew faster than that of the U.S. last year. Romney's source for the information told FactCheck.org that he himself would no longer use the figures.
• Sen. John McCain claimed American families spend $140 billion of their income preparing federal income tax returns. We find no support for that figure, which the Internal Revenue Service puts at $19 billion.
• Rep. Tom Tancredo claimed illegal immigrants "are taking a large part of our health care dollars." But the independent Rand Corp. estimates that undocumented immigrants account for 1.5 percent of health care spending
• Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said the Virginia Tech killer had been ruled a threat "to others" and involuntarily committed because of his mental state. Neither is true.
• Barrack Obama boasted of taking no money from registered lobbyists but didn't mention that he does accept money from their family members and partners and from ex-lobbyists.

Your Task: Select a major campaign speech by either Barack Obama or John McCain. Collectively identify 10 factual claims. Research the claims, verifying whether they are true or false. You may use sites such as Factcheck.org to assist you. Document your findings. Compile the information for submission. Be prepared to present your most interesting findings to the class.

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