Fact-Checking Mitt Romney’s Big Speech

If looking presidential means following George Washington’s famous—if apocryphal—example, then Mitt Romney did mostly OK during his Thursday night speech at the Republican National Convention: He did not tell a lie. Or, at least, he didn’t tell as many lies as running mate Paul Ryan did the night before. By comparison, the folks at FactCheck.org say, Romney kept it clean. “Mitt Romney avoided major falsehoods in making his case to the American public while accepting the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention,” FactCheck said, but acknowledged: “We found a few bits of exaggeration and puffery” in Romney’s speech. Among the misleading bits: Blaming President Obama for American family income losses that started before his term, and suggesting the president had raised taxes on the middle class—even though the president has actually signed several temporary tax reductions. [FactCheck.org]