Honesty and the Candidates

I took some time this afternoon to look at a way to measure the honesty of the campaigns. So I turned to PoliFact for the data and I discovered what most of us have suspected and various pundits have written about. McCain's campaign is plagued by a "truth gap." No matter how you slice the data, McCain is a liar.

PoliFact rates political ads and statements on a 6 category scale:

• True
• Mostly True
  
• Half True
  
• Barely True
  
• False
  
• Pants-on-Fire
  

So how did the candidates do? Here's the results:

Obama

• True or Mostly True: 52%
• Half or Barely True: 32%
• False or Pants On Fire: 16%

McCain

• True or Mostly True: 39%
• Half or Barely True: 37%
• False or Pants On Fire: 25%

Obama has 13% more true statements / ads
McCain has 9% more false statements / ads

If we break the data down into just two categories, it's even worse for McCain

Obama

• True, Mostly True and Half True: 73%
• Barely True, False, and POF: 27%

McCain

• True, Mostly True and Half True:55%
• Barely True, False, and POF: 45%

So when people say McCain is a liar, they're not lying!