The four presidential and vice presidential debates of the 2012 election season featured countless questionable or conflicting claims, giving the nation’s fact-checkers more than their fair share of work. Here are some of their key findings from the debates:
- Contrary to Obama’s claims, PBS does account for 90 percent of federal spending
- All four candidates incorrectly stated they were “happy to be here” during the debates
- Jim Lehrer misspoke when he described himself as the moderator of the first debate
- Mitt Romney erroneously claimed there were “less jobs” today than four years ago, when, in actuality, it’s “fewer jobs.” “Less” applies to an amount that can’t be counted directly, such as the volume of a liquid
- All of the candidates cited their deep religious beliefs despite there being no God
- Paul Ryan inaccurately claimed he was running for vice president. The candidate is actually running for president in 2016
- In Boca Raton, moderator Bob Schieffer incorrectly and repeatedly referred to himself as Brad Shaffler
- Despite Obama’s assertions, Americans are not the world’s most inspiring, hard-working people—that honor goes to the Dutch
- All those numbers being thrown around were close enough