Get Your Facts Straight

I'm quickly becoming a fan of FactCheck.org, a site published by the Annenberg Public Policy Center to dispel falsities and twisted truths from politics. Of course the idealistic always lose and end up crushed between the inertia-filled gears of human reality, but it's nice for people like me to have a source for getting down to the truth. And this isn't just a partisan job, either. While McCain and Palin have been caught with fibs in their teeth a little more frequently and a little more blatantly, the site pulls no punches when catching our buddy Obama with his hand in the misinformation jar.

I have noticed an interesting trend here, though. McCain has been caught on multiple occasions pushing claims with no basis on fact in his attacks on Obama, while Obama prefers the method of taking McCain's actual comments and stances and then making them sound a little more serious than they actually were. Neither type of misinformation is good for voters, but it is a little sad that putting out blatant falsities that can be refuted with just a modicum of Internet search skills is actually a useful enough political tool that the the few sophisticated voters you lose are outnumbered by the more gullible voters you gain or cause to tie themselves more closely to you.

If you want a good reason to get exposed to this site, they're posting live during the debate tonight. Really cool concept.