Fact check: Candidates again twist truth

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - Facts went astray on tax cuts, negative campaign advertising and oil exports when Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain engaged Wednesday in their third and final presidential debate.

Some examples:

McCAIN: Claimed that Obama has spent more money on negative ads than any other presidential candidate. That's probably true — given that Obama will have raised and spent more than any other candidate.

THE FACTS: By one measure, however, McCain was wrong when he said that 100 percent of his ads weren't negative. According to one study, by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, 100 percent of McCain's ads have been negative.

The McCain campaign sent out an e-mail with a CMAG comparison (covering Sept. 12-Oct. 11) of how much money the two campaigns have spent on negative and positive advertising. It does back up McCain's statements that Obama is spending more than $40 million on negative advertising, but it also shows that he's spending nearly $30 million on positive advertising. According to this release, McCain is spending more than $27 million on negative ads and only $5 million on positive ads. McCain is only running 11,471 positive ads compared to nearly 60,000 negative ads, according to the release. Comparatively, Obama is running 48,729 positive ads and more than 80,000 negative ads.

So, yes, Obama is spending lots of money on negative ads, but he's also spending much more money on ads as a whole. But percentage wise — according to the CMAG numbers — McCain is spending nearly 85 percent of his total advertising budget on negative advertising. Obama is spending roughly 60 percent of his total advertising budget on negative advertising.
— NBC News' First Read

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OBAMA: "Every dollar that I've proposed, I've proposed an additional cut, so that it matches."

THE FACTS: The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that his programs would add $281 billion to the deficit at the end of his first term. The analysis includes Obama's proposals for saving money.
— The Associated Press 

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McCAIN: "We have to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much."

THE FACTS: This is a reference to U.S. spending on oil imports. McCain has repeatedly made this claim. But the figure is highly inflated and misleading. According to government agencies that track energy imports, the United States spent $246 billion in 2007 for all imported crude oil, a majority of it coming from friendly nations including neighboring Canada and Mexico. An additional $82 billion was spent on imported refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel and fuel oil. A majority of the refined products come from refineries in such friendly countries as the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Trinidad-Tobago and the Virgin Islands.
— The Associated Press

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McCAIN: Said that Obama is opposed to off-shore drilling. That's only partially true. Obama had opposed it, but later said he'd support it as part of a bigger compromise.

THE FACTS: From the the Palm Beach Post this past August: "U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said today he would be willing to open Florida's coast for more oil drilling if it meant winning approval for broad energy changes. 'My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,' Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post. 'If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage — I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done,' Obama said."

McCain once opposed offshore drilling, too.
— NBC News' First Read

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McCAIN: "We can eliminate our dependence on foreign oil by building 45 nuclear power plants right away."

THE FACTS: For nuclear power to lower oil dependency would require a massive shift to electric or hybrid-electric cars, with nuclear power providing the electricity. No new U.S. nuclear reactor has been built since the 1970s. Although 15 utilities have filed applications to build 24 new reactors, none is expected to be built before 2015 at the earliest. Turmoil in the credit markets could force cancellation of some of the projects now planned, much less spur construction of 45 new reactors, as reactor costs have soared to about $9 billion apiece.
— The Associated Press

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OBAMA: "I want to provide a tax cut for 95 percent of working Americans, 95 percent."

THE FACTS: Obama constantly says this. But the independent Tax Policy Center says his plan would cut taxes for 81.3 percent of all households in 2009.
— The Associated Press

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McCAIN: "Now, we have allocated $750 billion. Let's take 300 of that billion and go in and buy those home loan mortgages and negotiate with those people in their homes, 11 million homes or more, so that they can afford to pay the mortgage, stay in their home."

THE FACTS: Ordering the government to buy up bad mortgages to cut homeowners' monthly payments might sound good, but experts are skeptical. They say the plan McCain is promoting is unlikely to solve the housing crisis that's pushing the economy toward recession. One big problem: The vast majority of the toxic home loans that are clogging financial markets and freezing up credit have been repackaged into complex investments that the government would be hard-pressed to unravel and buy. And the government could end up paying far more than they would ever be worth. That could primarily help banks and lenders with taxpayer money.
— The Associated Press

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