Biden Vs Palin debate, more untruths than truths

New York, Oct.3 : Wednesday's vice-presidential debate between Delaware Senator Joe Biden and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin may have earned the latter some brownie points, but a fact check on what both said during the over hour and a half interaction suggests that there were more untruths than truths.

According to a CBS reality check, the first issue that reveals this was whether McCain voted to cut off funding for troops in Iraq?

While Biden claimed McCain voted against funding the troops, the fact check reveals that the 2007 troop appropriation amendment first had a withdrawal timetable, and that McCain urged the President to veto that amendment.

President George W Bush did, and most Republicans voted against the amendment, but McCain missed the actual vote.

Obama on the other hand did vote against the 2007 troop appropriation, but only after the amendment resurfaced without the timetable for withdrawal. He voted nine other times for troop appropriation.

On whether Obama voted 94 times to increase taxes, the fact check says the Republican National Committee began using this erroneous fact in July of this year.

Of the 94 votes, 23 did not increase taxes. They were votes against proposed cuts. Seven of the votes were offset votes, calling for taxes for some, but less taxes for others. Some measures had more than one vote, which compounds the number.

According to non-partisan www.FactCheck.org, 53 of 94 votes were budget measures that had nothing to do with raising taxes.

On whether Obama had committed to meeting Iranian President Mohamad Ahmadinejad, the fact check says Obama said he would.

The reason cited last year was that not talking to countries is punishment to them, and therefore, ridiculous.

On whether Palin pushed for raising taxes as the Mayor of Wasilla, the fact is she successfully pushed for a referendum to raise local sales taxes to pay for a multi-use sports complex.

On Palin's view on building a natural gas pipeline for 40 billion dollars, www.PolitiFact.com says that the actual cost is 26 billion dollars.

It also says that Palin's claim that Obama said, "All we're doing in Afghanistan is air-raiding villages and killing civilians.." is a distortion. Obama did not say this was "all we're doing."

Obama quote from Associated Press August 14, 2007: "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there."

Palin also went wrong when referring to the commanding general in Afghanistan as McClellan. His actual name is General David McKiernan.

Governor Palin claims Obama's plan would increase taxes on the middle class is also a distortion.

Obama voted for two non-binding resolutions that would have rolled back the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, not to raise taxes. And at ,000, Obama's tax plan actually gives greater tax cuts to these middle class families than McCain's.

Palins claim the 2005 Energy Bill gave big tax breaks to the oil companies. This is misleading. The fact is there were tax cuts, but according to the Congressional Research Service, tax increases on the oil companies-- in the same bill--were 300 million greater.

ANI