FOXNews.com: Fact-Checkers Review Convention

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Fact-Checkers Review Convention Sep 8th 2012, 17:41 President Obama and Vice President Biden made statements in their convention speeches about unemployment, Medicare and other issues that fact-checkers say appear inaccurate or at least misleading. Among the questionable remarks were Biden's argument that "after the worst job loss since the Great Depression we created 4.5 million private sector jobs in the past 29 months" – a frequent response by the Obama campaign when questioned about the slow economic recovery. The Associated Press and others point out that statement is misleading because it counts jobs from the recession's lowest point  to where employment began to grow again – excluding jobs lost earlier in Obama's term and masking that overall unemployment has increased over that period. "Overall, roughly 7.5 million jobs were lost during the recession that began in December 2007 and ended officially in June 2009," according to the wire service. The Associated Press also points out that Obama said in his speech that he wants to use money saved by ending the wars to build highways, schools and bridges. However, the wars were largely financed by borrowing "so there is no ready pile of cash to be diverted to anything else," the wire service writes. The group FactCheck.org listed eight instances in which either Biden or Obama "spun" facts during their speeches Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C. The group point out that Obama boasted that "independent experts" found his economic plan would cut the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years. However, one such analyst called a key element of the plan a 'gimmick,' the group said. Other examples include the president saying U.S. auto makers are back on top of the world. "Nope," writes FactCheck, pointing out that General Motors has slipped back to No. 2 and is headed for third place in global sales this year behind Toyota and Volkswagen. The group said Biden misquoted Mitt Romney when he said the GOP presidential nominee "believes it's OK to raise taxes on middle classes by $2,000." Romney in fact promises to lower middle-class taxes, FactCheck points out. Still, Obama and Biden were not alone, fact-checkers also dissected Romney and running mate Rep. Paul Ryan' convention speeches a week earlier in Tampa, Fla. FactCheck said it found just "a few bits of exaggeration and puffery" in the Romney speech, even citing a tweet by Bill Burton, a former Obama press secretary, saying likewise. The group said Romney exaggerated about the loss of family income under Obama because some occurred 13 months he took office. However, the group said Ryan, in his acceptance speeches, made "false claims" or gave "misleading statements" at least five times – among them were that president's health care law funnels money away from Medicare "at the expense of the elderly." FactCheck pointed out Medicare's chief actuary says the law "substantially improves" the system's finances and that Ryan has embraced the same savings.

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