JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM

The Washington Post does some fact checking on tonight's debate responses:

Kerry at one point said that "the president has presided over an economy where we've lost 1.6 million jobs." Kerry misspoke. He meant to qualify that statistic by referring to "private sector" jobs. The net number of jobs lost since Bush became president is about 800,000, because of growth in the public sector. For "public sector," read "government." Yeah, those conservative Bushies really love small government.

Plus, Kerry was "technically incorrect" in asserting that Gen. Shinseki was retired early (in fact, his replacement was named 14 months before his retirement, effectively ending his authority).

Let's see, compared to those major gaffes, (1) Bush lied about the generals looking him in the eye and saying they didn't need more troops in Iraq. (2) Bush lied about Kerry saying it was a mistake to remove Saddam Hussein from power. (3) Bush lied about Kerry being "the most liberal Senator." (4) "Bush said Kerry's tax-cut rollback would raise taxes on 900,000 small businesses. This is misleading." (5) Bush lied about Kerry's healthcare plan being a "goverment takeover" of the U.S. health system. (6) Bush implied that he might reverse his position on the reimportation of drugs from Canada. That would be a HUGE flip-flop. (7) Bush stated, "I haven't yet," when asked about the White House blocking "legislation opening the borders to the reimportation of U.S.-made pharmaceuticals." He lied. He did. (8) Bush insisted that tort reform would reduce healthcare costs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates Bush's plan for capping damage awards at $250,000 "would lower health care costs by only about .4 percent to .5 percent, and the likely effect on health insurance premiums would be comparably small."

That darn Kerry. He keeps getting his facts right and exposing Bush's talking points to ridicule. How disrespectful of him.

If one more friend or relative says to me, "I just can't trust John Kerry" in the face of Bush and Cheney's serial prevarications, I won't gag, I'll just throw up all over them.

UPDATE: I meant LAST night's debate. I've been up too long.