REAL Facts on V.P. Candidates Debate

By truth on Oct 4, 2008 | In National | Send feedback »

Real Facts on the Vice Presidential Candidates Debate Part I

Cathy von Hassel-Davies

I watched the debate among Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin (Republican) and Democrat Senator Joe Biden Thursday night. Since then I have been pouring through videos, newspaper, magazine and online articles checking the facts on statements made by both parties.

Since there was a lot of discussion on various issues from boths sides I am going to do this article in sections. Please subscribe to our RSS feed if you are interested in the other articles to follow.

I started by printing out the CNN transcripts of the debate and going over the statements made by both Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin, Gwen Ifill of PBS was the moderator.

In a response to Gov. Palin's comment (page 2 of transcript) that John McCain "sounded a warning bell and he wanted reform measures, Senator Biden stated that "two Mondays ago John McCain said at 9 o'clock in the morning that the fundamentals of the econom were strong.^"1 Governor Palin responded to this by saying that "John McCain, in referring to the fundamental of our economy being strong, he was talking to and he was talking about the American workforce."²

After watching the video where Senator John McCain made this statement in Jacksonville, Florida on September 15, 2008, I do not see where he was speaking of the American workforce as Sarah Palin stated. Here is John McCain's statement during that speech:

Our economy I think still the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very difficult times..."

After this statement he starts mentioning not putting Americans in this position and talks about Wall Street, reform in government, every action for robust energy supplies, international markets, lower taxes, lower inflation and on. Yet not one word about the American workforce or any statement that can be taken that he meant the American workforce.

We will continue onto page 4 of the transcripts where Palin mentioned that "96 percent of his [Obama] votes have been solely along party line..." Sarah Palin is correct in this statement, out of 352 votes, Senator Barack Obama voted along his party lines 96% of the time. However, John McCain voted 88.1% along party lines out of 235 votes, so if John McCain voted more often his record would probably be in the higher percentages.³ John McCain does have the distinction of being the Senator with the most missed votes - 64%; whereas, Obama has a record of 46.3%.⁴

Gwen Ifill then asked "about the subprime lending meltdown," and Sarah Palin stated their stance on federal government strict oversight, but does not mention deregulation. However, Joe Biden does mention that John McCain has been for deregulation and it is this deregulation that got us into this trouble. In a March 3, 2008 Wall Street Journal article John McCain says, "I am a fundamentally a deregulator," so we do know that McCain is for deregulations. Biden then mentions that McCain wrote an article for a major magazine that McCain wants to deregulate the health care industry and let the free market guide it like the banking industry. Senator John McCain did write an article for the September/October 2008 Contingencies Magazines and here is a direct quote from that article.

I would also allow individuals to choose to purchase health insurance across state lines, when they can find more affordable and attractive products elsewhere that they prefer. Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.⁵

¹ Governor Sarah Palin, Senator Joe Biden, Gwen Ifill "Transcript of Palin, Biden debate," n.p. [cited 4 October 2008]. Online: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/02/debate.transcript/

² Palin, Biden, Ifill 3.

³http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/party-voters/

⁴ http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/vote-missers/

5 Senator John McCain "Better Care at Lower Costs for Every American," Sept/Oct. 08. Online: http://www.contingencies.org/septoct08/mccain.pdf