Fact checking Bill Clinton

There’s only one problem with Clinton’s speech, he’s not the candidate. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Last night Bill Clinton alleged Republicans have little use for facts.

“Their campaign pollster said we are not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers,” said Clinton.

Which is true.

Republican Pollster Neil Newhouse said exactly that last week.

But what about Bill’s facts? Applause tends to rise as accuracy declines, and Clinton pretty much bent the applause needle.

So I went to FactCheck.org which writes that the worst they could find was that he oversold Obamacare as bringing down the rate of increase in health care spending, when most of it hasn’t taken effect yet.

But the part where he said that since 1961 Democrats added 42 million private jobs while Republicans added only 24 million, which you think would be a wild partisan exaggeration, is true, says FactCheck.

So I checked Politifact. True says Politifact.

So I checked the Washington Post fact checker. Their main gripe with Clinton: Claiming the Obama budget, with its taxes on the rich, reduces the deficit by $4 trillion. They say that it’s wildly optimistic. But that would imply that the Romney budget, which attempts to cut taxes for everyone, would be even more wildly optimistic.

All in all, Bill comes off pretty well. Bringing us to the real problem with his speech and the rapturous applause it got, which is that: he’s not the candidate.

Dave Ross Commentary:

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