FactCheck.org’s Closing Arguments

FactCheck.org has published two new reports and analyses on the presidential campaign – one for each Candidate.   Here are the summaries.  Please read the full reports on McCain and Obama for the full details.

Closing Arguments: McCain

McCain and Palin close their campaign with a new set of dubious character attacks.

Summary
In the final week, the McCain-Palin campaign unleashed some all-new misleading character attacks on Obama:

• McCain strained to tie Obama to a Palestinian professor whose views on Israel are quite different from Obama’s.
• McCain and Palin both distorted a seven-and-a-half-year-old radio interview with Obama concerning the court system and civil rights.
• McCain and the GOP ran ads claiming Obama’s military budget would mean huge job cuts in Virginia, despite Obama’s proposal to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps – and McCain’s own calls for ending wasteful weapons programs.

Closing Arguments: Obama

With the finish line in sight, Obama serves up familiar, pie-in-the-sky promises.

Summary
In the last few days, Obama has wrapped up his pitch to the electorate with some misleading claims we’ve heard before:

• He continued to ask voters to believe he can pay for every dime of an ambitious health care plan and other spending proposals while cutting taxes for all but the most affluent. Budget experts say that’s unlikely.
• He also kept up the drumbeat on a promise to end “tax breaks for sending jobs overseas,” as though that could do much to keep jobs at home. Experts say it can’t.