Presidential Election 2004
Fact-Checking the Candidates
(Bush-Kerry Debate #1)

By Alan Shapiro

To the Teacher:

A presidential debate provides an excellent opportunity to examine the candidates' language. How factual are the candidates in their arguments? How accurate are they in the information they provide? How selective? Can students differentiate between factual and judgmental statements? The two exercises below use the September 30 presidential debate as a way of considering such questions.

Student Reading:
Facts, Judgments and the Presidential Candidates

Everybody knows about facts. "Joe lost his driver's license. He's stupid. He won't get anywhere. He realizes it. And those are the facts," says your friend.

No, they aren't. Sentence 1 could be factual. The friend reports a piece of information that could have objective reality, and maybe could be verified. On the other hand, the friend may not be accurate. Possibly, Joe pretended to lose his license for reasons of his own. If so, we would then have a sentence that in form is factual but in substance is not. In Sentence 2 the word "stupid" tells us that this statement is judgmental, for it expresses an opinion. Sentences 3 and 4 look factual, but since we can't know right now whether or not "he won't get anywhere," or whether "he realizes it," they, too, must be classified as judgments, but of the predictive variety.

So far, simple. But determining factuality can be a lot more complicated. The U.S. eliminated Taliban rule over Afghanistan and the Afghan people will have free elections this month, Bush said in the September 30 presidential debate. Factual? Yes, but... To this day Taliban forces stage guerrilla attacks, disrupt election efforts, control portions of the countryside, and kill American soldiers and other Afghans. The Bush statement is selective in the facts it provides and might mislead about the situation with the Taliban in Afghanistan today.

Or consider Bush's repeated attacks on what he regards as Kerry's flip-flopping about his position on Iraq. "I've had one position, one consistent position," Kerry insists. Factual? Yes, but... New York Times writer David Rosenbaum, in analyzing the flip-flopping charge (10/2/04), concluded that Kerry's position had been "quite consistent." However, Kerry "repeatedly changed his emphasis." And Kerry was "often unclear in expressing his views."

On March 16, Kerry said of the Senate vote on funding for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan: "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." This statement too is factual, but looks foolish and leaves Kerry open to the ridicule Bush has repeatedly given it. During the September 30 debate Kerry tried to turn the tables, using the judgmental word "mistake" twice. But he left a final judgment to the viewer: "I made a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the President made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse?"

In presidential campaign speeches and debates the candidates make seemingly factual statements that we are often in no position to evaluate immediately. For example, they present numbers and statistics or make emphatic judgmental statements that sound factual and come without supporting evidence.

To analyze a candidate's views, we to be able to recognize the difference between a statement of fact and a judgment. We also need to know how to verify whether or not a candidate's statement is true and to examine critically the evidence he provides for his judgments.

Problem 1:

Classify each of the following statements by the candidates in their September 30 debate as factual (F) or judgmental (J). Be prepared to explain the reason for your choice.

____ 1. Bush: "I've made some tough decisions."

____ 2. Kerry: "I can make America safer than President Bush has made us."

____ 3. Bush: "The world is safer without Saddam Hussein."

____ 4. Kerry: "Mr. Bush has made, I regret to say, a colossal error of judgment"
(in his handling of the war in Iraq).

____ 5. Bush: "Saddam Hussein now sits in a prison cell."

____ 6. Bush: "The enemy realizes a free Iraq will be a major defeat."

____ 7. Kerry: "Just yesterday General Eisenhower's son General John Eisenhower endorsed me."

____ 8. Kerry: "Mr. Bush rushed to war without a plan to win the peace."

____ 9. Bush: "My opponent looked at the same intelligence I looked at and declared in 2002 that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat."

____ 10. Kerry: "In Afghanistan the elections have been postponed three times."

Problem 2:

Below the spotlight is on just one statement made by Bush and one by Kerry during their debate. Closely read each statement and the commentary that follows. Then, as directed, either write or discuss your response to the questions that follow.


1. Bush cited specific examples of what he regards as progress in Iraq. He said:

"There will be elections in January. We're spending reconstruction money. And our alliance is strong."

In his first sentence Bush refers to Iraqi elections scheduled for January 2005.

Bush's second sentence refers to U.S. funds slotted for the reconstruction of Iraq. There have been many complaints from Iraqis and from American officials about the slow pace of spending on reconstructing Iraq's power plants, water systems, sewage disposal facilities, and the like. On September 24, Bush's Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, testified before a House of Representatives subcommittee about how much had been spent of the $18 billion Congress appropriated last December for "emergency" funds for Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that $1.2 billion of that $18 billion had actually been spent in the nine months since Congress had approved the funds.

Administration officials say that the two main reasons for the slow pace in reconstruction spending are 1) "continued fighting, bombings, kidnappings and sabotage" and 2) "cumbersome regulations for awarding contracts." (New York Times, 10/1/04)

Bush's third sentence refers to what is usually called "the coalition," which consists of some 30 nations that have soldiers in Iraq. There are about 170,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Britain has 8,300 troops, and three other nations, including Poland, have over 2,500. The other 25 nations in the coalition have under 8,000 troops in Iraq, combined.

• Is Bush's second sentence about reconstruction money factual? If so, why? If not, why not?
• Taking into consideration the statements by Armitage and administration officials, rewrite Bush's second sentence so that it provides a fuller account of the spending of reconstruction money. Your revision will probably require more than one sentence.
• Which, if any, of the sentences would you classify as judgmental? Why?

2. Kerry made the following statement in describing the cost of the Iraq war:

"And so, today, we [Americans] are 90 percent of the casualties and [pay] 90 percent of the cost: $200 billionó$200 billion that could have been used for health care, for schools, for construction, for prescription drugs for seniors, and it's in Iraq."

According to budget officials quoted by FactCheck.org, the cost to date of the Iraq war is just over $120 billion. "Much of the money Kerry counts has not even been requested formally by the Bush administration, and is only an estimate of what will be sought sometime in the coming year, to be spent."

• Are Kerry's figures about the percentage of American casualties in Iraq and the percentage of costs factual? How would you determine if they are accurate?
• Taking into consideration the information from FactCheck.org, rewrite Kerry's statement about the financial costs of the Iraq war so that it provides a fuller account of those costs. Your revision will probably require more than one sentence.
• Is Kerry's statement about how $200 billion could have been spent factual? Judgmental? Why?

This essay was written for TeachableMoment.Org, a project of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. We welcome your comments. Please email them to: lmcclure@morningsidecenter.org.

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