PANTS ON FIRE --- and other mishaps of Election 2012

As we close in on the election, something worth considering (if you are still undecided especially) is how honest our presidential candidates are. Obviously political rhetoric does not lend to complete factual honesty, but a candidate’s track record for stretching, twisting, manipulating and cherry picking the truth for political gain says something about his (or her!) character. Here’s some info on this from PolitiFact.com:

Romney’s statements by ruling

True - 30 (15%) 

Mostly True - 30 (15%) 

Half True - 54 (28%) 

Mostly False - 33 (17%) 

False-  32 (16%) 

Pants on Fire - 17 (9%) 

Total statements rated: 196 

58% at least Half True 

42% Mostly False at best 

Obama’s statements by ruling

True - 98 (22%) 

Mostly True - 104 (23%) 

Half True - 119 (27%) 

Mostly False - 55 (12%) 

False - 63 (14%) 

Pants on Fire - 7 (2%) 

Total statements rated: 446 

72% at least Half True 

28% Mostly False at best 

Something else to consider is that as commander in chief and the face of our government, and thus our country, our president must be able to represent us well on the world stage. The following graphic from NPR.org shows the results of a BBC-reported survey of about 1,000 people in each of 21 countries, asking who they would elect or prefer as the next US president. As you can see below, most people surveyed prefer Obama. Only Pakistan came out with a majority of surveyed “voters” punching for Romney.

Here’s the full article from NPR. 

A final thought: what haven’t we heard yet? What has been deemed unimportant in the presidential debates and in President Obama and Governor Romney’s stump speeches? Here’s a brief list:

• Climate Change 
• The Eurozone Crisis 
• Campaign Finance Reform 
• Marriage Equality 
• Supreme Court Appointments 

 Full article at NPR.

Do we ever really hear substantive conversation about any issue? Eh, that’s debatable, but some sound bites on these important ones would have been nice.