Will the U.S. "Stay in Iraq for 100 Years"?

by Kristin Simpson and Alyssa Keninger

A commercial paid for by the Democratic National Committee claims that McCain’s policy is to stay in Iraq for 50, or maybe even 100, years. But on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” McCain said his opponents were taking his quote out of context.

The commercial, called “100 Years” and featured by the Museum of the Moving Image, begins with the voice of an unidentified journalist asking, “President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years?” McCain is then quoted as saying, “Maybe a hundred” and “That’d be fine with me.” “5 Years, $500 Billion Spent, Over 4,000 Dead” is flashed in text. The question and McCain’s first response are repeated, followed by a statement by a male narrator: “If all he offers is more of the same, is John McCain the right choice for America’s future?” The latter part of that question is also displayed in text, accompanied by a statement saying the ad was paid for by the Democratic National Committee.

At a town hall meeting in New Hampshire in January of 2008, McCain answered a crowd member’s question about a Bush statement that troops could stay in Iraq for 50 years. “Maybe 100,” McCain said. “As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, it’s fine with me and I hope it would be fine with you if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al Qaeda is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day.” According to CNN, McCain later defended his statement by saying he was referring to a military presence similar to what the nation already has in places like Japan, Germany and South Korea. He also said that any long-term troop presence in Iraq would be based on an agreement with the Iraqi government.

ABC News claims that McCain had shrugged off the attacks by his opponents on his “100 years” statement. “As we know, all’s fair in politics,” he said in Aurora, Ill. “But the fact is as everybody knows, and the media who follows me and spends a lot of time with me knows, I was talking about after the war is over.” He went on to defend his statement in Columbus, Ohio, saying, “The point is the surge is succeeding. We can bring our troops home with honor and we can bring them all home or we can have an arrangement, a security arrangement [with Iraq] much along the lines that we have with other countries.”

Although he has refrained from creating a specific timetable for withdrawing troops, arguing that timetables should be set in private discussions among Iraqi and American leaders, McCain he has made a statement on his plans should he assume the presidency. According to The New York Times, he said in May that most American troops would be home from Iraq by 2013 and that the nation would be a functioning democracy with only “spasmodic” episodes of violence. However, after his comment about the projection for 2013, McCain and his aides stressed that his remarks should not be interpreted as a timetable for withdrawal. Instead, McCain insists that he was simply projecting a victory, saying, “I am certainly not putting a date on it.”

Since McCain’s statement, Obama has said that McCain had not given a clear definition of success in Iraq. McCain rebutted by saying Obama “displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history and how we’ve maintained national security, and what we need to do in the future to maintain our security in the face of the transcendent challenge of radical Islamic extremism. And I understand that because he has no experience or background in any of it.”

Whether or not Obama has experience or background in the issue, he does have a plan for Iraq, which includes residual forces similar to those of McCain. The first step in Obama’s plan is to end the war. The removal of troops will take place in phases and will be in consultation with the Iraqi government. Unlike McCain, he gives a specific timetable for withdrawal. According to Obama’s website, military experts believe the U.S. can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of one to two brigades a month that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010—more than seven years after the war began. The site goes on to say, “Under the Obama-Biden plan, a residual force will remain in Iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and to protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. They will not build permanent bases in Iraq, but will continue efforts to train and support the Iraqi security forces as long as Iraqi leaders move toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism.”

According to Fox News, in March of 2008 Obama said that the difference between his and McCain’s plans lies in the length of time. “What I said was I would have a strike force in the region, perhaps in Iraq, perhaps outside Iraq so we could take advantage of or we could deal with potential problems that might take place in the region,” Obama said. “That’s very different from saying we'd have a permanent occupation in Iraq. And it’s certainly different from saying we would have a high level of combat troops inside Iraq for a decade or two decades or, as John McCain said, perhaps 100 years.” However, Obama has acknowledged the U.S. has maintained forces in South Korea as well as other places for extended periods, which McCain supporters say is proof of Obama twisting McCain’s words.

So yes, McCain wants to stay in Iraq, possibly for 100 years. But he doesn’t want to stay there in the manner he has been accused of. It all amounts to an implied falsehood by the Democratic National Committee and Barack Obama. By saying McCain’s policy is to stay in Iraq for 100 years, they are implying he wants to continue waging war for 100 years. And that’s not what McCain said. McCain wants to keep residual forces (much like Obama’s) in Iraq to maintain the peace, similar to the U.S. forces that remained in places after WWII. McCain and Obama agree on one thing: the notion of residual forces in Iraq does not necessarily mean keeping the war going for another century.

The lesson? Investigate extreme claims. When McCain said he wanted to stay in Iraq for 50, maybe even 100, years, what did he mean? Creating a message by twisting someone else’s words is an implied falsehood—a way to confuse the public without flat-out lying. Both sides pick a statement and then take it out of context to attack their opponents. And if you only listen to opponents’ side of the statement, you miss out on the real meaning, and the "full story."

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Barack Obama...Friend to Terrorists?

by Sara Kirsch and Leah Grothe

John McCain’s vice presidential running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, alleged that Barack Obama associates with terrorists. At a campaign event in Carson California on October 4 Palin alleged;

“One of his [Obama’s] earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times, was a domestic terrorist … part of a group which launched a campaign to bomb the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. . . These are the same guys who think that patriotism is paying higher taxes.”

Is there truth to Palin’s attacks on Obama’s patriotism, or is this a “guilt by association” smear?

First of all we must figure out who Palin was referring to when she says Obama associates with terrorists.

By terrorist she meant a man by the name of Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers is a man who acted as a domestic terrorist in the 1970s, as part of an anti-Vietnam War group known as the “Weather Underground.” The group protested U.S. policies by bombing the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol and a series of other government buildings. No one was injured in the string of bombings, but this now defunct organization was labeled a “domestic terrorist group” by the FBI.

Next we must find out what the connection is between Obama and Ayers. In Chicago they served on a board, the Woods Fund of Chicago, together. The board deals with welfare reform, acquiring affordable housing, and reducing poverty through tax policy changes. Another issue concerning the Woods Fund of Chicago Board was a controversial connection with a community organization association, know as ACORN. According to their website:

“Since 1970, ACORN has been building community organizations that are committed to social and economic justice, and won the victories on thousands of issues of concern to our members, through direct action, negotiation, legislative advocacy and voter participation. ACORN helps those who have historically been locked out become powerful players in our democratic system.”

The controversy is found in Obama’s endorsement by ACORN and he recently spent $832,000 of his campaign money in support of the organization’s activities. Recent investigation uncovered that ACORN was involved in a registration scandal. Obama had no involvement in the scam. Just because he associated with this group, that does not mean he is responsible for their actions.

In order to judge the validity of Palin’s claim, it is necessary to see Obama’s side of the story. During the Second Presidential Debate on Wednesday, October 15, Obama addressed Palin’s statements. He discussed both his connection with Ayers and the controversy involving ACORN;

“Forty years ago, when I was 8 years old, he engaged in despicable acts with a radical domestic group. I have roundly condemned those acts. Ten years ago he served and I served on a school reform board . . . Now, with respect to ACORN, the only involvement I’ve had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs.”

Obama also stated the Ayers would have no involvement in his campaign or presidency, should he win the election. The fact that Obama was very young when Ayers engaged in domestic terrorism makes Palin’s claim less believable. The fact that Ayers is now a professor at the University of Illinois and is an active citizen of Chicago makes the claim less intimidating.

Lesson: Palin’s claim that Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists" plays on the fears of Americans in the post-9/11 world. Palin’s claim, and the implication that Obama is not patriotic, is very misleading. When claims appeal to your emotions rather than logic, remember to dig deeper and see if the appeal is justified. While Obama has worked with Ayers on community projects, he by no means ‘pals around’ with him. When Ayers was carrying out his acts of domestic terrorism, Obama was 8 years old; it is obvious that he was not involved. In the end, we all believe what we want to believe, but remember, "if it’s scary, be wary."

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McCain, Obama, and Future Vacancies on the Supreme Court

by Sara Crouse and Brittany Friesth

There has been much speculation about the potential for future Supreme Court justice nominations drastically changing key decisions from the past 30 years. In a recent article by USA Today, former U.S. solicitor generals Walter Dellinger stated,

“People don't realize how much is at stake. It is highly likely there will be (up to) three vacancies in the next president's first term. Justices serve on average 25 years. That's six presidential terms. They make life or death decisions.”

Could the upcoming justices have the potential to take the Supreme Court in an ideologically different direction than seen in previous years?

While Obama’s and McCain’s political ideologies vary, understanding what lies in selecting a nominee for the Supreme Court is a different matter. It is almost inevitable that one and perhaps even two or three new nominees will be confirmed during the next presidency.

It is possible that Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and David H. Souter are all approaching retirement age, despite the fact that they could hold their positions for life. Justice Stevens was appointed in 1975 by President Ford, and is 88 years old. Justice Ginsburg has stated she may want to retire at the age of 75. Lastly, Justice Souter also mentioned retirement and possibly returning home to New Hampshire.

How would the makeup of the Supreme Court change with the absence of Stevens, Ginsburg, and Souter? The three justices make up 75% of the so-called ‘liberal bloc’ of the Supreme Court. This would leave the court with four remaining justices on the conservative side, one swing vote, and one on the liberal side. Therefore, the next president’s political ideology will determine the future composition of the Supreme Court, which could lead to a rethinking of many liberal-leaning decisions of the past 20 years.

Senator John McCain speaks directly on his website about what constitutes a great Supreme Court justice, noting that his selections would be similar ideologically to current conservative justices. The website reads,

“As President, John McCain will nominate judges who understand that their role is to faithfully apply the law as written, not to impose their opinions through judicial fiat.”

That statement can best be interpreted as saying McCain believes in interpreting the Constitution in keeping with the original document. He feels the document should not change merely based on changing opinions in society. One decisions conservatives have targeted is Roe v. Wade.

When asked in an interview, with Tim Russert in January 2000, whether he supported a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions John McCain responded,

“Yes, sir.”

In 2006 his position had changed to,

“I don’t think a Constitutional amendment is probably going to take place. But I do believe that it’s very likely or possible that a Supreme Court should – could overturn Roe v. Wade, which would then return these decisions to the states, which I support that.”

Senator Barack Obama’s criteria for Supreme Court justice nominees are not listed on his official website, though he has voiced his opinion during interviews over the past few years. In one such interview Obama stated,

“We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.”

Senator Obama seems to mean a liberal judge who is in touch with current social issues and would expand civil rights for disadvantaged groups. He believes in the Constitution as a living document that should change with and adapt to society.

During the last presidential debate Obama responded to moderator Bob Schieffer’s questions on abortion by stating,

“Ultimately what I believe is that women in consultation with their families, their doctors, their religious advisers, are in the best position to make this decision. And I think that the Constitution has a right to privacy in it that shouldn’t be subject to state referendum.”

Senators McCain and Obama have very different ideas about Supreme Court justices, abortion, and constitutional law, which would mean vast differences in the nominees they might appoint in the next four years.

Lesson: As a voter, one should be aware that the next President may make severall lifelong appointments to the Supreme Court. Selecting conservative or liberal judges will change the makeup of the Supreme Court. It is important to identify cases that could potentially remain the same or be overturned in the hands of the future Supreme Court.

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Who has "More" Negative Ads: Obama or McCain?

by Josh Dahlin and Russell Place

In the final presidential debate John McCain stated:

“And it's a matter of fact that Senator Obama has spent more money on negative ads than any political campaign in history.”

Is this claim true? Has Obama spent the most on negative ads in history? Maybe he has simply spent the most on ads overall.

An article by Alexander Mooney from CNN politics on October 12, 2008, states that Obama is spending far more money on his campaign than McCain is, but while McCain is nearly 100% negative with his ads, Obama has about ½ positive ads and ½ negative ads throughout the campaign. This was from data collected by a University of Wisconsin Advertising Project study. The spending by McCain and Obama is roughly equal, according to CNN.

The University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, using data from the Campaign Media Analysis Group, has an article saying the claims that Obama and McCain have been making are true in different time frames. When Obama claims McCain has been all negative, he is citing numbers about ads run from September 28th till October 4th, which directly attack either Obama or the Democratic Party. However, from June 4th to October 4th, 47% of his ads were negative, 26% were positive, and 27% were contrast ads, which are a mixture of positive and negative. As for Obama, 35% of his ads have been negative, 35% have been positive, and 25% fall into the contrast ad category. This article finds that on pure negative ads McCain leads, but if contrast ads are considered negative, the campaigns are nearly equal on negative ads.

Some examples of these ads can be found here. There are different kinds of ads there from McCain and Obama.

Spending in presidential campaigns has been climbing each year. Evan Tracey, CMAG’s chief operating officer and CNN’s consultant on political ad spending, says that in 2000 one billion dollars were spent in total on political ads, but that number rose to 1.7 billion in 2004, and 2.4 billion in 2006. This year won’t be any different, with predicted spending of over three billion dollars.

An article by Jim Rutenberg for the International Herald Tribune states that Obama will set a record. He won’t set a record for the most spent on negative ads in the history, but he will set a record for the most spent on ads period, surpassing the $188 million spent by George W. Bush in his reelection campaign of 2004. By the looks of the campaign, Bush’s record will be obliterated by Obama, who declined to take public financing so he could raise more money from private donors. McCain on the other hand has spent around 91 million, only about ½ what Obama has spent.

Lesson: Does Barack Obama have the most negative ad spending in history? It appears that McCain is relying more on negative campaign advertising as a percentage of his ads. It is a fact, however, that Obama will surpass Bush’s spending record of 188 million dollars, with McCain finishing far behind. McCain has less money, but is more focused on negative ads, while Obama has so much money to spend that he can run plenty of negative and positive ads.

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Is John McCain a "Maverick" Republican?

by Ryan Napoli and Sebastian Hoffmann

At the Republican National Convention in St. Paul on September 4th, presidential candidate John McCain said in his acceptance speech:

“I’ve been called a maverick; someone who marches to the beat of his own drum. (…) I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.”

Is Sen. McCain really a maverick? The answer is not that simple.

The Almanac of American Politics states about Sen. McCain: “it appears to be his view that members of Congress, like members of the military, should serve the national interest honorably and without reference to political consideration” (Almanac of American Politics 2008, page 95).

A quick look at Congressional statistics, however, gives us a different impression. In 2007 he voted 95% of the time with President George W. Bush and 88.1% of the time with the majority of the Republicans during the current Congress.

These numbers may seem high, yet his 88.1% party voting only makes him the 63rd most party loyal U.S. senator together with Elizabeth Dole and Lindsey Graham. Moreover, Sen. McCain’s support for the president has already been as low as 77% (in 2005) and for the party 67% (in 2001).

Furthermore, according to the Washington Post, Sen. McCain’s “loyalty score” on “the most important bills, nominations and resolutions” since the 109th Congress ranks at the relatively low level of 67.74%. His best-known maverick key vote might have been in 2001 when he was one of two Republican senators to vote in the negative on Bush’s major tax cuts even though the package was extraordinarily popular with the Republican base. As a 2008 presidential candidate Sen. McCain has quit his opposition to the Bush tax cuts though.

Nevertheless, Claremont McKenna College congressional expert Jack Pitney predicts significant differences between a possible McCain administration and president Bush’s: "John McCain's position on the environment, for instance, is very different from that of the Bush administration, and one would expect a lot more attention to issues such as global warming." On the other hand he has regularly supported Republican policies on issues such as defense, social security, and abortion (Almanac of American Politics 2008, page 96).

While in Congress from 2003 - 2006, Sen. McCain’s voting records (as taken from the Almanac of American Politics 2008) support his claim of being a maverick. Based on the National Journal’s ratings on the issues of economic, social, and foreign issues, Sen. McCain on average voted liberal 39.5% of the time and a mere 50.6% of the time with his conservative party. Moreover, Sen. Obama’s average on the same issues in 2005-2006 is 81.5% liberal and only 13.1% conservative. In those same two years McCain’s averages were 40.1% liberal and 53.3 % conservative. Liberal McCain key votes of the 109th Congress include a no on “bar same sex marriage” and a yes on both “pathway to citizenship” and “stem cell research.”

Lesson: There is no clear answer as to whether John McCain is a maverick or not because there are different ways of measuring party loyalty. For instance, one can evaluate his voting record by concentrating on his most important votes or one can take all of his votes into account – his key voting record lets John McCain appear much more liberal than his overall voting record. One can also consider different time periods: in 2007 McCain voted significantly more often with president Bush than in 2005 for example. Moreover all numbers are relative, i.e. without comparisons to other numbers they are meaningless when it comes to interpretation. For instance, McCain’s 88.1% party voting during the current Congress seems to be a high number but in fact 62 senators have an even higher level of loyalty! So all in all, one can say that John McCain has been a “relative maverick” in his political career, even though he became more loyal to the party last year.

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Obama Says Education System is Falling Behind

by Sebastian Hoffman and Ryan Napoli

In an article published on the 3rd of October 2008 the Washington Post quotes Obama saying that:

“The next president is going to have (…) an education system that has fallen behind.”

Is he right that the U.S. education system is not competitive any more?

(For more information about Obama’s stance on education, visit: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/
http://www.ontheissues.org/social/Barack_obama_Education.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-09-obama-education_N.htm )

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which is sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), is a widely accepted survey that measures and compares the academic level of 15-year old students in reading, science, and mathematics in all 30 OECD member countries and several non-member countries. The latest assessment (conducted in 2006) ranks the United States 21st in science and 25th in mathematics among the 30 OECD countries. That means the U.S. finds itself in the last third in both categories. The U.S. clearly performed below OECD average, scoring 489 in science compared to the 500 average, and 474 in mathematics compared to the 499 average. Both in science and math the United States has 74 points less than Finland, the leading nation. The reading part of the PISA study could not be counted in the U.S. due to errors in the carrying out of the tests.

On the 2nd of August in 2006 USA TODAY reported that “U.S. 12th-graders recently tested below the international average for 21 countries in mathematics and science. About one-third of the fourth-graders and one-fifth of the eighth-graders cannot perform "basic mathematical computations," according to the National Center for Education Statistics.”

While the sources mentioned above undoubtedly support Obama’s claim, the 2006 Progress in Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) gives us a different impression. This evaluation conducted in 45 different education systems lists the average U.S. 4th-grader 40 points above international average (540pts. vs. 500pts.).

Moreover the 1999 Civic Education Study (CivEd) carried out in 28 countries by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) shows U.S. 9th-graders considerably performing above average on the total civic knowledge scale. This measures the “knowledge and understanding of key principles that are universal across democracies” and ranks the United States 6th, scoring 106 points, which is 6 points above international average and 5 points below the score of Poland, the leading nation.

If one takes a look at higher education, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s 2007 Academic Ranking of World Universities lists 17 U.S. universities among the world’s top 20. Yet this American domination diminishes as one increases the number of universities in the “top group” – while there are 54 U.S. universities among the top 100, one can “only” find 166 American universities among the top 500. This still significantly exceeds the amount of top 500 universities of the UK (42), the 2nd best country in the ranking.

Lesson: Barack Obama’s claim that the American “education system has fallen behind” is not specific enough and thus only partly correct. He needs to clarify which part of the U.S. education system he talks about, i.e. which grade and which subject. Concerning science and mathematics skills of 15-year old students and 12th-graders he definitely seems to get the facts straight. But, for instance, when it comes to civic knowledge of 9th-graders, or reading skills of 4th-graders, Obama’s statement does not hold true, at least not in the years the tests above were taken.

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McCain Overstates Obama’s Ties to Indicted Businessman Rezko

by Meagan Gamble

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been under fire recently for his alleged ties to indicted Illinois businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who was convicted in June 2008 on 16 charges of corruption related to his ties with Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich.

A recent political ad from the McCain campaign claims that Obama is “born of the corrupt Chicago political machine”, and calls Rezko Obama’s “money man.” But just how tight are these alleged “ties” between Obama and Rezko?

Not as tangled as McCain would like you think.

Obama and Rezko met in 1990, when Rezko, then a low-income housing developer, offered Obama a job. He turned it down. However, Obama took a job in 1993 at a small law firm in Chicago, Davis Miner Barnhill, that represented the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., which later partnered with Rezko’s firm in a 1995 deal to convert an abandoned nursing home into low-rent apartments. Reports from Davis Miner Barnhill say that Obama spent a total of 32 hours on the project, only 5 of which came after the partnership. The rest of Obama’s time was spent trying to solidify the deal between WPIC and Rezko’s company, Rezmar Corp. Rezko partnered with other clients of the firm in later deals, but none of them involved Obama.

Then, following Obama’s election to the US Senate, Rezko’s wife Rita bought adjacent lots of property in the Kenwood neighborhood in Chicago. The property was sold to Obama for $1.65 million, about 300 grand below the asking price. Rita Rezko paid the full market price, $625,000, for the property next door. (When questioned why he had not paid the full market price for his property, Obama attributed it to the real estate market and the fact that his property had been on the market for quite some time, which tends to bring down the asking price.) The deals were both made in June 2005. In December 2006, Obama paid Rita Rezko $104,500 for a strip of her property so that he could have a bigger yard. At the time, Rezko was under intense media scrutiny for the federal investigation into his career, and questioned later about the decision, Obama has called it “a mistake”:

“With respect to the purchase of my home, I am confident that everything was handled ethically and above board. But I regret that while I tried to pay close attention to the specific requirements of ethical conduct, I misgauged the appearance presented by my purchase of the additional land from Mr. Rezko. It was simply not good enough that I paid above the appraised value for the strip of land that he sold me. It was a mistake to have been engaged with him at all in this or any other personal business deal that would allow him, or anyone else, to believe that he had done me a favor.”

Since then, Rezko has contributed funds to Obama’s campaign throughout his political career. Obama has said that Rezko raised close to $60,000, and when Rezko was indicted in 2006, the presidential candidate donated about $11,500 to charity, an amount that represents what Rezko contributed personally.

In regards to Obama’s personal relationship with Rezko, in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Obama has clarified that they were far from old friends: “I have probably had lunch with Rezko once or twice a year and our spouses may have gotten together on two to four occasions in the time that I have known him.”

Obama has also asserted that neither he nor his wife, Michelle, have participated in any other transactions of any kind, financial or legal in nature, with Rezko, and maintains that the real estate deal was a lapse in judgment on his part.

Furthermore, the McCain ad was released on September 22, the same day that news broke that Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, was paid $2 million dollars to lobby against tougher regulations for the mortgage empires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The timing of this is a little too convenient to be a coincidence.

Lesson: In any presidential campaign, a candidate will latch on to any hint of a scandal to sling mud at an opponent. McCain took a small connection between Rezko and Obama and tried to blow it out of proportion to cast Obama as having faulty judgment and ethics. In reality Obama and Rezko are just acquaintances. It is up to the public to discern fact from spin and realize when the innuendo is just that – innuendo.

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McCain Distorts Biden's Plan for a New Iraq

by Alyssa Keninger and Kristin Simpson

In an interview on CNN’s “American Morning” John McCain said,

“Joe Biden said Iraq had to be broken into three different countries. One of the more cockamamie ideas that I’ve heard in a long, long time.”

Did Joe Biden really propose that Iraq should be split into three different countries?

The story starts back on May 1, 2006. Joe Biden, along with Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council of Foreign Relations, worked together to develop a plan for Iraq dividing the nation into three regions, not countries.

A New York Times op-ed article written by Biden and Gelb sheds light on the origins of their plan as well as some of the details of their plan for Iraq. Their idea originated from the splitting of Bosnia into sections for Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The Bosnian government still existed; it was just broken into these smaller regions under the central government. Over the past ten years, Bosnia has developed into a more peaceful nation, and the central government is gaining strength.

Biden’s actual plan for Iraq is similar to this plan from Bosnia. It does not split Iraq into three countries; it simply splits it into three regions. There is one region for each major religious group, Shiite, Kurds, and Sunni. These regions would be in charge of their own domestic laws, internal security, and administration, much like our states. These separate regions all fall under one central Iraqi government that controls foreign policy, border control, and oil revenues. The plan also included laws protecting women and other religious minorities as well as creating a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Biden believes this plan is a good option that should be considered, but he says there is evidence that it is already taking place in an effective manner. On board his plane, he told reporters,

“They may not want to call it what I was talking about. But the end result is, there is a lot of autonomy in the Anbar province today. There is a lot of autonomy up in the Kurdish area today. And there is increasing autonomy in the Shia regions.”

There have been many U.S. and Iraqi officials that have supported the Biden-Gelb plan for Iraq. Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State, supported the Biden-Gelb plan, saying Iraq needed,

“more efficient regional government leading to substantial decrease in the level of violence, to progress towards the rule of law and to functioning markets could then, over a period of time, give the Iraqi people an opportunity for national reconciliation — especially if no region is strong enough to impose its will on the others by force.”

The National Security Advisor to Iraq, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, said the following of Senator Biden and his proposed plan for Iraq in a CNN interview,

“I don't think Senator Biden has said that Iraq should be divided into three sections. What I think – and I can't agree more with Senator Biden and his article, and I think he is a very well-informed person. What we are talking here – and he’s talking about Iraqi constitution. The constitution of Iraq has said very clearly that you can form provinces, regions, federal – this is a democratic federal system, and any two or three or nine or 10 provinces can get together and form a region, and form a federal unit. And this is exactly what Joseph Biden is saying, or I believe when I read his article… I think Biden’s idea is a good idea, with some modification because it’s very compatible with our permanent constitution, which was ratified on the 15th of October last year.”

Lesson: John McCain stating that Biden called for separate countries in Iraq is stretching the truth. There is a large difference between separate regions and separate countries. John McCain and Joe Biden obviously have different opinions on what is the right move to make in Iraq, but he has made a crucial misquote of Biden’s plan, drastically changing the way his audience would judge the Biden-Gelb Plan.

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Biden Skews McCain's Voting Record on Veterans' Health Care

by Leah Grothe and Sara Kirsch

John McCain describes himself as America’s Maverick, defending the military and Iraq War. This enthusiasm is criticized by some veterans, as well as his opponents. On September 22nd, Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s running mate, condemned John McCain for his position on veteran issues at the National Guard Association Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. He explained,

“John McCain voted against billions of dollars in additional funding for veterans’ health care- against $2 million for TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] research…against $500 million for mental health issues…against $400 million for inpatient and outpatient care. John wants to ration veterans’ health care to those with combat injuries, which would mean that millions fewer veterans would have access to VA medical care.”

Biden had much to say about McCain’s voting record on veteran’s health care, and did not hesitate to mention McCain’s plan for veterans’ healthcare. Are Biden’s claims correct, or is he distorting McCain’s position on veterans’ healthcare?

McCain did vote to table a Senate bill that would fund, with an offset, an additional $2 million for research, development, test and evaluation improvements of imaging for traumatic brain injuries. He voted this way because there was no proposal of how to fund the bill. He voted against a plan providing an additional $500 million to be used for readjustment counseling, relieving mental health services and treatment/rehab services. McCain also voted against granting $430 million for medical services and outpatient care for veterans.

Biden was actually correct on these three claims, but McCain does have an explanation for voting against the bills. The Army Times writes that Senator McCain believes there would be enough money available to treat veterans if the VA (Veteran Affairs) were to operate more efficiently. McCain opposes wasteful spending that goes over the executive branch’s budget. These bills, he explained, did just that. It seems that fiscal responsibility is the issue for McCain, not limiting veteran’s healthcare.

Biden also claimed that McCain wants to ration veteran’s health care; placing those with combat injuries at the top of the list and leaving millions of veterans without access to VA medical care. Unlike the other claims presented by Biden, this one is a bit farfetched. McCain has recently proposed a plan that would give vouchers to veterans with non-combat injuries. They may then receive care more quickly at private, for-profit hospitals rather than through the VA. McCain explained,

“The new card I propose will offer better alternatives, to provide the benefits they have earned. For many veterans, the closest VA facility isn't close enough…Often, all that prevents them from receiving local care is a system for sharing medical records among VA, DOD, and civilian hospitals and doctors.”

McCain further explained that his plan does not force anyone to go to a non-VA hospital and that it would not prevent any further expansion of the VA network. McCain is proposing options; therefore, millions of veterans will not be left out of VA care.

Though the proposal had initial appeal, it received much criticism from American veterans. They argued that McCain does not fully explain his definition of a combat injury, which could lead to conflict if the proposal was enacted. Others provide additional concerns that McCain’s proposal excludes non-combat veterans, who are equally important as those that served in time of war. McCain’s proposal did give vouchers for non-combat veterans to seek care outside of the government system, but it did not exclude millions from VA care. Veterans would still have access to the system.

Lesson: Joe Biden was correct about Senator McCain’s voting record on Veteran’s healthcare, but there is more to the story. Biden never explained why McCain voted against the bills, which left us to find that out from other sources. Watch out for the wording of claims made by both parties. Biden’s claim about rationing veteran healthcare was questionable. The less that is explained in a claim, the more skeptical you should be. Dig into it and uncover the facts for yourself.

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Nader's Harsh Words for Biden on Criminal Justice

by Adrienne Gathman and Jessica Eufers

Ralphs Nader’s statement released August 13 had some strong words in reaction to Barack Obama’s choice for vice president Joe Biden. Nader claimed Bien was “highly regressive on criminal justice issues.” It was said that Biden could also be “credited with the world record U.S. prison population.”

Nader’s statement made many jabs at Joe Biden, but a particularly unforgiving segment claimed:

“Biden is highly regressive on criminal justice issues. He was the architect of the modern drug war (i.e., the Anti-Drug Abuse of 1986) including mandatory minimum sentencing that can be credited with the world record U.S. prison population.”

How much truth is there in Nader’s comments?

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 is a bill that set out to strengthen Federal efforts to encourage foreign cooperation in eliminating illegal drug crops and bringing an end to international drug traffic, improve the enforcement of Federal drug laws, provide strong Federal leadership in establishing effective drug abuse prevention and education programs. Although Nader is correct regarding Biden’s part in the act,
Biden clearly admits to his part. However, Nader neglects to mention that Biden has released statements asking for elimination of certain parts of the bill. The Vice Presidential nominee also states that with the information the legislature had in 1986 regarding crack this bill made a lot of sense, but since that time, the information has been proven false and not reliable.

Biden is open on his Senate website about his part in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. However, Obama’s presidential website makes no mention of Biden’s part in the Act in its issues section regarding the crack and cocaine disparity. It instead makes remarks that both Obama and Biden will fight to repeal the mandatory minimum sentence and feel it is wrong. Biden has since called for the passing of the Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act which would eliminate the disparity between crack and cocaine, repeal the mandatory minimum sentence, and improve drug treatment for offenders. Said bill has not been passed, but it is co-sponsored by Obama and past presidential candidates John Kerry, Chris Dodd, and Hillary Clinton.

The other part of the statement that is questionable is the claim that the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 can be “credited with the world record U.S. prison population.” It is true that the United States has the world’s largest prison population and currently has the largest it ever has been. It is also said that the drug policies have had the single greatest impact on criminal justice policy, but there is no possible way to determine for sure that it is the only cause for the huge prison population.

Lesson: All of the claims made in this part of the statement are true, but have a bit of a twist to them. It is true Biden was a major part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, but Nader failed to mention that Biden himself has said the act is faulty. It is also true that the United States has the greatest prison population it ever has, and it can be partly attributed to the changes in drug policy. However, it is one of many causes.

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Obama, McCain Skewing the Facts on Social Security and Taxes

by Meagan Gamble

As November draws closer, the candidates get louder. At a campaign stop in Daytona Beach, Florida on September 20th, Senator Barack Obama criticized Senator John McCain’s social security plan: “If my opponent had his way, the millions of Floridians who rely on it would’ve had their Social Security tied up in the stock market this week.”

In a campaign ad entitled “Promise”, Obama also claims that the McCain plan will be “cutting benefits in half.” But according to McCain’s actual stance on Social Security, this isn’t entirely accurate.

While it’s true that McCain supports allowing citizens to invest portions of their Social Security into the stock market, the Arizona senator has never claimed or stated that he will cut benefits for seniors. At the GOP Primary debate in Orlando, Florida on Oct 21, 2007, McCain said: “And you have got to the American people and say we don't -- we won't raise your taxes. We need personal savings accounts, but we got to fix this system.”

The Obama “Promise” ad goes on to quote John McCain from a March, 2008 interview with the Wall Street Journal, in which he said that he “campaigned in support of George Bush’s proposal,” referring to a 2005 proposal from George Bush which planned for “progressive price indexing.” This plan has nothing to do with privatization of social security. It was instead an attempt to stabilize Social Security benefits for future retirees – under the current plan, the rate of inflation would make it impossible for the budget to cover benefits for anyone by 2041.

Furthermore, a 2005 study by Jason Furhman (who is now an economic advisor for Obama), found that the 2005 Bush proposal would in fact cut benefits substantially, but only for future retirees – it would do nothing to impact those who currently receive benefits. The Social Security Network had similar findings.

But Obama is not the only candidate skewing the facts. Time and time again, McCain has misrepresented Obama’s tax proposal, going so far as to even claim that Obama would “voted in the United States Senate to increase taxes on people who make as low as $42,000 a year” in the first presidential debate. This is not true. While Obama voted twice this year on budget resolutions to allow tax cuts proposed by George W. Bush to expire in 2010, the budget resolutions do not have the force of law and would not specifically raise taxes at all.

In an ad entitled “Expensive Plans,” John McCain claims that Obama’s plan will include “painful tax increases on working American families,” which has been a repeated line throughout his campaign. But according to Obama’s actual proposed tax plan, no American family making less than $250,000 a year would see taxes increase.

Furthermore, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that: “Senator McCain's tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes, almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their after-tax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. Many fewer households at the bottom of the income distribution would get tax cuts and those tax cuts would be small as a share of after-tax income.”

As for Obama’s plan? “Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers. The largest tax cuts, as a share of income, would go to those at the bottom of the income distribution, while taxpayers with the highest income would see their taxes rise significantly.” This is almost the exact opposite of what McCain claims that Obama is planning.

Lesson: in the fervor of the last leg of the election, each candidate attempts to gain last minute supporters, often by misleading and even outright lying about their opponent. In order to get the true story on each candidate, extra research outside of campaign speeches and debates is essential.

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Palin Trumps Obama in Earmarks

by Alyssa Keninger and Kristin Simpson

The McCain-Palin campaign has made attacks on Obama’s earmark spending. But after a look at the numbers, the claims don’t match up.

It all started when Obama accused Sarah Palin of lobbying for the Bridge to Nowhere and then later hiding her original stance on the project when it became unpopular, according to the Wall Street Journal. “You can’t just make stuff up. You can’t just recreate yourself. The American people aren’t stupid,” Obama said.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responded with, “The only people ‘lying’ about spending are the Obama campaign. The only explanation for their hysterical attacks is that they’re afraid that when John McCain and Sarah Palin are in the White House, Barack Obama’s nearly $1 billion in earmark spending will stop dead in its tracks.” At a rally on September 9, John McCain also claimed that Obama had requested nearly a billion dollars in earmarks.

The non-partisan, non-profit organization Citizens Against Government Waste has devoted themselves to eliminating waste, mismanagement and inefficiency in the federal government. They have defined a pork project as a line-item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures.

So where does Obama fall in the pork game? Obama’s 54 projects for fiscal year 2008 total $97.4 million. When ranked from most pork to least, Obama comes in at number 70. McCain sits in a five-way tie for last place, with a total of $0. USA Today says Palin is sitting on $155 million for 2008. If Palin was a senator, she would come in 44th, sitting well above Obama.

But in terms of residents, Palin takes the prize in the pork-spending contest. According to the Associated Press, Palin has requested $750 million in her two years as governor—the largest per-capita request in the nation. When you break the numbers down per resident, Palin’s 2008 earmarks come out to about $231 per capita, compared with earmarks of roughly $22 per person in Illinois.

CNN claims that indeed Obama has requested $1 billion in pork in his nearly four years as senator. That’s an average of $250 million a year. Apply the same means to Palin’s record and she ends up with $375 million per year.

McCain, the fearless leader of anti-earmark spending, has spent much of his career fighting the special spending system that allows politicians to gather cash for pet projects back home and has even published lists of these financial gifts. And Alaska’s most recent governor has not gone unnoticed by her presidential running mate. In recent years, McCain’s inventory of “objectionable spending” has included the small Alaskan town of Wasilla three times. All three of those porky projects were requested by the mayor at the time, who just so happens to be Palin.

To add to all of the pork-talk, in September McCain claimed that Palin didn't take any earmarks as governor—false! She took $198 million in February alone. When talking about Palin, a McCain spokesperson quotes McCain as saying she has a “record of reforming government, which includes cuts in wasteful spending in the Alaska state budget.” The spokesperson also said that McCain didn’t mean to give people the wrong impression: “it certainly wasn’t intentional or without some basis in fact.”

What does Palin say? That depends on when you ask her. In an interview, Palin first said she approves of the elimination of earmarks. Later on, in the same interview, she said she just wants to reform the process, saying she wanted it “to be in the light of day, not behind closed doors, with lobbyists making deals with Congress to stick things in there under the public radar.” But as recently as this year, Palin has shown support for earmarks in a column in the Fairbanks News-Miner, calling her earmark request “a responsible approach.”

Lesson: You can’t heed every claim you hear. McCain’s campaign attacked Obama’s earmark spending. But the same campaign also attacked Palin’s earmark spending, and then falsely denied that she had any pork projects as governor. And then there’s Palin, who changes her mind on her stance on earmarks. Through the melee of all of the accusations, one thing stands clear. Obama has less earmark spending than Palin, both per constituent and per year. When the claims don’t add up, look at the figures. Numbers don’t lie.

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“Maverick” McCain is Right on Boeing Scandal

by Sara Kirsch and Leah Grothe

Presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain spoke on CNBC’s "Squawk Box" September 16 about the need to control excess government spending. When asked how he would promote change in the current Republican party on this issue, he responded,

"I fought against spending and I think the problem has not been taxes, the problem has been out of control spending . . . I broke a scandal on Boeing that was going to cost taxpayers an additional $6 (billion), $7 billion where people went to jail."

Is McCain exaggerating his role in the Boeing scandal? Or is he telling the truth?

In 2003, the New York Times reported that the Air Force presented Congress with a $20 billion plan to lease 100 Boeing 767’s as replacements of Vietnam war-era airplanes currently used in Iraq. The Air Force claimed that this was the fastest way to acquire new and updated aircrafts. They made this claim despite the fact that the Vietnam-era tankers could be upgraded for a lower cost.

The lease deal between the Air Force and Boeing was extremely lucrative for Boeing. Leasing 100 Boeing tankers was equivalent to the profit of selling approximately 1000 commercial airliners. Senator McCain was an opponent of this deal from the beginning. He led the Senate Commerce Commission in a hearing where he acquired important documents from Boeing that clearly showed Boeing, not the Air Force, controlled the acquisition. McCain stated that the committee’s review showed,

"an extremely aggressive sales pitch not only by a company whose mission is to protect its shareholders and to make profitable deals, but by the United States Air Force whose mission is very different."

The interests of Boeing clearly differed from those of the Air Force; Boeing’s interest was self profit, while the Air Force’s aim was to increase national security.

McCain went on to release the documents to the Senate in hopes that the revelation would kill the deal between Boeing and the Air Force. Instead, he hesitantly voted for the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2004 Fiscal Year, which allowed the Air Force to lease only 20 tankers from Boeing and buy the other 80. The bill in effect did save taxpayers approximately $6.7 billion, the committee concurred. This would make McCain’s claim about saving taxpayers between 6 and 7 billion dollars true.

As to McCain’s claim about people going to jail, this was in effect true but underlined with exaggeration. Two top Boeing executives did go to jail; Vice President of Missile Defense Systems Darleen Druyun was sentenced to nine months in prison, while Chief Financial Officer Mike Sears was only sentenced to four. While information uncovered by John McCain may have proven beneficial to the company, the two employees were arrested for negotiating Druyun’s possible employment at Boeing while she was still considering the contract. The two faced no hard time and McCain overstated his role in the arrests.

Lesson: Do not take everything at face value. While Senator McCain’s claim was mostly true, he discussed the facts in a way that place himself in a better light, and as the "law and order," anti-corruption candidate.

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