Fact-checking Obama, Biden convention speeches

ROBYN BECK/AFP/GettyImages

(CBS News) Upon accepting the Democratic nominations for president and vice president, President Obama and Vice President Biden on Thursday night made several assertions about their own records and about Mitt Romney's.

Here's a look at those assertions and whether or not they hold up under scrutiny:

Biden on job creation: "And because of the decisions he's made, and the strength the American people have demonstrated every day, America has turned the corner. After the worst job loss since the Great Depression, we've created 4.5 million private sector jobs in the past 29 months."

According to data gathered from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy has created 4,517,000 private sector jobs since January 2010, 29 months ago.

The peak of private sector employment was in January 2008, when 115 million private sector jobs filled the economy. From the peak - the last year of President Bush's term - until when President Obama took office in January 2009, 4.66 million jobs were lost. Between January and March 2010, when the private sector began adding jobs again, 4.15 million jobs were lost.

MORE: Fact-checking the 2012 election

Biden on the auto bailout: "When I look back now on the President's decision, I also think of another son of an automobile man--Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney grew up in Detroit. His father ran American Motors. Yet he was willing to let Detroit go bankrupt. It's not that he's a bad guy. I'm sure he grew up loving cars as much as I did. I just don't think he understood--I just don't think he understood what saving the automobile industry meant-to all of America. I think he saw it the Bain way. Balance sheets. Write-offs."

There's no argument that the auto industry bailout worked in the long term. However, the decision was not solely Mr. Obama's. Biden other Democrats praising Mr. Obama this week on the bailout and its benefits are neglecting to acknowledge the initial decisions of former President George W. Bush and the Democratic-led Congress to pump $13 billion into the automakers in December 2008.

In fact, talks between the automakers and Congress began months before, when Mr. Obama was still a presidential candidate. Where Mr. Obama put his real stamp on the bailout was setting the parameters in March 2009, allocating General Motors and Chrysler an additional $4 billion in exchange for agreeing to major restructuring of their operations.

Romney did grow up in the Detroit area, and his father was CEO of American Motors. It's also true he famously penned a New York Times op-ed in which he said the automakers should have declared bankruptcy before receiving aid. Bankruptcy was not off the table for Mr. Obama: in his March 2009 restructuring announcement, Mr. Obama gave GM and Chrysler one month to shape up or face bankruptcy. In fact, Chrysler did file for bankruptcy at the end of April 2009, GM shortly thereafter, though both emerged from bankruptcy stronger than before.

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[betty1122]

Biden Admits Plagiarism in School But Says It Was Not 'Malevolent'
By E. J. DIONNE Jr., Special to the New York Times
Published: September 18, 1987
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/18/us/biden-admits-plagiarism-in-school-but-says-it-was-not-malevolent.html

Joe Biden in law school http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIaALKHVrAA

Even plagiarism Robert Kennedy

[VeggieVal]

While we're on the topic of "fact checking", there's this from the generally Left-leaning AP:

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/fact-check-obama-and-phantom-peace-dividend

[jcnbma]

After reading this, I think I'm more settled than ever to vote for Obama's relection. I think that Obama needs more time to fix this mess. No president could have fixed it all in 4 years. Also, I don't want to jeopardize the progress we've made, however modest, by going back to the Republicans.

[forumcomments]

Here's another perspective on fact cehcking.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/08/bend-it-like-biden-obama-fact-checkers-find-exaggerations-in-conventions/

[jonnyooh]

Did we fact check Romney/Ryan? If we did, I didn't see it. I must have blinked. Which reminds me, we were given numbers on how many people watched the RNC. Why no numbers for the DNC? Would these numbers be embarrassing to the RNC? That would be my guess. Most Republicans were busy watching Maury and Jerry, or their latest issue of Spiderman comic book, AKA Spidey. If they should release a Spidey movie on or around Nov. 12th, it could leach a few million Foxbot morons away from the polls. Or better still, a documentary criticizing Obama.

[KansasCity-2012]

Why Green Energy Technologies are Competitive

Before 2004, oil bought from Mid Eastern countries on commodities exchange used US Dollars to make oil purchases. After the invasion of Iraq, the US Dollar was dropped and the EURO became the currency of exchange.

Oil will never be cheap again and will go up gradually...making green technologies economically feasible, even as consumers slowly migrate away from oil.

Before, when the US Dollar was the currency of choice, consumer drop on oil led to an oil price drop, which made competing technologies relatively expensive or less competitive.

[sjc_1]

The world can produce about 90 million barrels of oil per day right now. After the slow down and the beginning of expansion again, the world will demand 100 million barrels of oil per day and it is not clear that can be provided.

Classic economics says prices will rise and the oil will go to the highest bidder. China sits on one trillion dollars in U.S. currency and one trillion dollar in our bonds. If they want to pay more for oil, they can.

[sjc_1]

Romney is the Outsourcer and we are having trouble with jobs, what is wrong with this picture? He seems to want to privatize things, make taxes fees and basically take credit for situations he had little or nothing to do with.

Romney does not seem like the guy with character and integrity that we need, in fact just the opposite. We would have lots of spin and smiles, but when things got bad I doubt he would have the grit the President has shown.

[retmw1]

troop

You don't remember that NAFTA was a republican plan dating back to the first bush(google it). The congress when NAFTA was put into effect the republicans controlled congress.

[sjc_1]

NAFTA was a Republican idea all along, the GOP was amazed that Clinton went along with it, now some want to blame Bill entirely.

Bill Clinton believed in free trade. Mexico has become one of our largest trading partners and is a major importer of U.S. goods.

Win lose or draw, someone was going to get the manufacturing. Would your rather it be Asia or our next door neighbor who buys from us?

[JustOne-View]

Obama made grand promises that he knew he could not keep. His well crafted WORDS mean nothing. He says what it takes to get those who see themselves as victims to vote for him. After look at all of his friends I conclude that his view of America is not my view of America. He is a socialist at his core. He sees America as the evil in the world that needs brought down. He shares his friends view of America. He is anti the America I love and the America of our founding fathers. He is anti United States Constitution. He studied Constitutional Law not to support and defend it as he gave his oath but to circumvent it as he has. This is NOT the man I want in MY White House. I firmly believe he is a cunning fraud. I think many are being used and being fooled. Now, I am not a Republican(Registered Independent) and I do not think much of Mitt Romney but I do think he understands doing the hard work and making hard decision that built and saved companies and the Olympics. I think he has a much better mind for how business works. He was not just a collage student and a community organizer. Obama learned how to manipulate people for his own gain. He lied when he wanted money to go to collage as a foreign exchange student. He changed his name that that served him best. He will say anything it takes to get what HE wants and he wants POWER. This is, in my view, a true narcissist. This is a young man on a mission and I do not like his mission. I don't like the people he has hung out with. I do not like his Chicago political "friends". I do not believe he is who we see. I think he is an illusion created to deceive. He words sound totally empty to me. What he says means nothing. Mitt seems like the old guard politician. And Paul Ryan the new kid on the block that must learn the way things are done. Sorry but I am not very hopeful for jobs or the economy. But I do not trust the guy in our White House.

[ghettoforever]

You do not trust POTUS, but you trust Romney. Boy do I feel sorry for you. WHAT IS ROMNEY'S PLAN? WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO MEDICARE/MEDICAID? WHERE ARE THOSE TAX RETURNS? WHY DID ROMNEY LIE ABOUT WHAT STATE HE LIVED IN WHEN HE RAN FOR GOVERNOR?

[Filmguy870]

sapper: sometimes renting makes sense. We tried total ownership....that didn't work out too well.

[AOCGUY]

by joesapper September 7, 2012 6:52 PM EDT
the fact of all these speeches is that these two are trying to keep there positions , period

And the other two are trying to get those positions, period

[marychgo]

I've read dozens of "fact-checkers" over the past several months, and one generalization seems crystal clear: Democrats sometimes exaggerate or overhype, but only the Republicans outright LIE!

[crankyoleman]

Then how do you explain Cutter's comment that Obama did better than Reagan? That's a big fat lie.