Political debates tend to be great forums for spreading misinformation. Of course, the September 7th, 2011 Republican debate at the Reagan Library was no exception. Three major fact checking sources have already taken aim at a few of the claims given during the Republican debates:
- Fact Checker: "Fact checking the GOP debate at the Reagan library"
- Politifact: "Fact-checking the Reagan Library debate"
- FactCheck: "FactChecking the Reagan Debate"
Perry blew it
As conservative blogger David Frum put it "The revelation from the Republican presidential debate: Rick Perry and his team utterly failed to prepare answers to utterly predictable questions":
- "Perry’s Social Security answer delivered President Obama the perfect clip for a 2012 negative ad"
- “military adventurism”
- Perry's performance was "Nervous, irritable, stuttering, floundering"
- Perry failed to explain away the lousy statistic about health insurance coverage in his state.
- "How could a Texas governor be unready to talk about immigration?"
Of course the most memorable part of the night was when Rick Perry referred to Social Security as a "Ponzi Scheme". For a moment, let us set aside the fact that this may not sit well with the 75% of Americans who support Social Security. Politifact has already tackled this claim quite often in the past and found it to be incredibly misleading at best. This comment also motivated Glenn Kessler to write "A primer on Social Security"
Bachmann misses the market crash
Michelle Bachmann made an interesting comment during the debate:
Don't forget the day that President Obama took office, gasoline was $1.79 a gallon. It's entirely possible for us to get back to inexpensive energy.Politifact rated the statement True. Of course they also pointed out how little the president can do about gas prices:
"Other than lip service, there is little any president or member of Congress can do about the price of gas, since 70 percent of the cost of a gallon is determined by the cost of crude oil," said John B. Townsend II, a spokesman for the mid-Atlantic region of the American Automobile Association... (emphasis mine)So, although the statement is technically true, the context in which it was given (that it was Obama's fault and she can fix the problem), is almost entirely false.
However, what seemed to be left out of the analysis is that the reason gasoline prices were at $1.79 when Obama took office is almost entirely due to the fact that much of the world was falling into a deep recession, significantly lowering the demand for gasoline. There is little evidence that increased drilling would have nearly the effect on gasoline prices that Bachmann predicts. The only realistic way to get gasoline prices THAT low during a Bachmann presidency would be another massive recession (which may not be all that unlikely during a Republican presidency). Does Bachmann want that?
Perry gets it spectacularly wrong on Galileo
During the debate, Rick Perry made an interesting remark about climate change and Galileo:
“The idea that we would put Americans’ economy in jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet to me is just — is nonsense. I mean, it — I mean, and I told somebody, I said, just because you have a group of scientists that have stood up and said, here is the fact — Galileo got outvoted for a spell.”Henry Fountain of the New York Times dove right onto this statement (with some help from historian Thomas Mayer):
Galileo, whose astronomical observations confirmed the Copernican theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun, was basing his assertions on empirical knowledge and faced opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, which supported the Ptolemaic view of an Earth-centered universe.
Mr. Perry, by contrast, has said repeatedly that he does not believe the empirical evidence compiled by scientists in support of climate change, but that he does adhere to faith-based principles.(emphasis mine)In other words, Perry got it spectacularly wrong. Galileo was not a "maverick" among scientists. Scientists often agreed with him. His real opposition was from the Church. And that was mostly due to disobedience, as well as his attempt to fit the Copernican model of the solar system to the bible.
Update 9-12-11: Chris Mooney brings up a few more points on the Perry/Galileo comment.
Job Spin
No political debate would be complete without a few politicians either taking credit or dishing out blame for job creation (or the lack thereof). Romney, Perry, and Huntsman each had a little share in this sort of fun. Of course, this tends to be an issue mostly with candidates who have previously held (or currently hold) executive positions (presidents/governors/mayors). In this case, all three of these candidates have had experience with such a position. FactCheck took on a few of these claims:
- Romney tried to take credit for reversing the job situation in his state when he assumed office. However, he left out the part where Massachusetts also ranked 47th in the nation in job growth.
- Perry once again attempted to spin his "success" with job creation as governor of Texas. However, he left out quite a few other statistics, ones that would not look so favorable. For instance, while actually being nothing special in regards to unemployment (27th in the nation at 8.4% in July 2011), Texas also has the highest percentage of hourly workers paid at or below minimum wage as well as the highest proportion of medically uninsured people in the nation.
- Huntsman used BLS survey data to support his claim that Utah was #1 in the nation in job growth from Jan 2005 to Aug 2009. However, using payroll data (a preference for most economists), Utah only ranked 4th (notably behind Texas).
Recently Republicans have had little trouble divorcing themselves from reality. These Republican debates provide no divergence from this trend.
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