Campaign check: Lies and half-truths outed

Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, September 13, 2008

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Each week until the election, The Chronicle will publish a compilation of "lies, half-truths and contradictions uttered by the presidential campaigns and their supporters during the previous week. Many of the distortions were not seen in California or appeared only on cable networks. Here's the rundown from the week:- Joe Garofoli

The statement	In a 30-second TV ad called "Original Mavericks" showing on national cable and battleground states, the McCain campaign asserts that GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere."	In a 30-second online ad called "Lipstick," the McCain campaign took Sen. Barack Obama's use of the phrase "lipstick on a pig" out of context as a sexist smear on Palin. Obama was using the phrase to describe how McCain's foreign, economic and health care policies are similar to President Bush's.	In a 30-second TV ad called "What Kind" running in key states, the Obama campaign said that McCain "voted to cut education funding." It also states that "McCain's economic plan gives $200 billion more to special interests while taking money away from public schools."	In a 30-second TV ad running in battleground states called "Education," McCain's campaign asserts that Obama's main education accomplishment was "Legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners."	When appearing on ABC's "The View" Friday, McCain said Palin never sought congressional money for projects as governor of Alaska. A 30-second advertisement released Friday talks about how Palin has cut earmark requests.
The distortion	She was for the bridge in 2006 until she was against it. Congress pulled funding for it two years before Palin adjusted her position. The nonpartisan Politifact.org said: "We rate Palin's position a Full Flop."	McCain used the exact same phrase to describe Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan on the campaign trail last fall. He should know better; his former press secretary Torie Clark wrote a book called "Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era By Someone Who Knows the Game."	Three of those five votes the campaign cited were against increased spending - that's not a cut. Another was actually a funding increase. The $200 billion refers to McCain's plan to cut the tax rate for all business corporations over five years. But that's not taking money from the public schools, it is part of McCain's proposal to "freeze non-defense, non-veterans discretionary spending for a year."	As a state senator, Obama supported a bill - which never was passed out of the Illinois Legislature - which included teaching "age-appropriate sex education" - for younger children that could include topics like what is inappropriate touching. Parents could opt out of the unit if they were uncomfortable with their kids hearing this material.	Palin's office asked for $256 million in earmarks last year and $197 million this year. As mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 7,000), the town sought $11.9 million in earmarks from 1999-2003, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan Washington D.C. budget watchdog group.
The statement	A chain e-mail circulating around the Internet that lists books Palin tried to have removed from the Wasilla, Alaska, public library after she became mayor in 1996. There is no evidence that the e-mail was created by the Obama campaign.	Palin told ABC's Charlie Gibson Thursday that she had never met a foreign head of state. Said Palin: "I think if you go back in history and you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer."	In a 30-second TV ad playing in battleground states called "Fact Check," the McCain campaign cites the nonpartisan political advertising watchdog Factcheck.org as saying Obama's attacks on Palin were "completely false" and "misleading."	On the stump and in interviews, McCain touts Palin's "executive experience" as governor for 21 months of a state with fewer people than San Francisco and as mayor of a city with fewer people than the Cow Palace can hold.	In her ABC interview Friday, Palin says that "I'm attributing some of man's activities to potentially causing some of the changes in the climate right now." When Gibson said that sounded like she has changed her position on the causes of climate change, Palin challenges Gibson to show her "where I've said there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect or no effect on climate change."
The distortion	Politifact.org found that no books were banned: "Nor is there any record that Palin ever initiated a formal process to censor any books, as the e-mail suggests."	Every vice presidential candidate still alive to ask reported that they had met at least one head of state. That's in the last 32 years, according to ABC news research.	Factcheck.org didn't say that. Says who? Factcheck.org: "We have yet to dispute any claim from the Obama campaign about Palin," the Web site said.	In an October 2007 debate against, among others, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, McCain said, "I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."	In an August 2008 interview with NewsMax, Palin said: "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made."