Fire-fighters for pants

摘要

Both candidates "are flinging rather a lot of political poppycock," says FactCheck.org, a website that does what it says it does. John McCain will cut your pension. Barack Obama does not take the Iranian threat seriously. These are just two of the whoppers that a growing swarm of fact-checkers have unearthed this year. PolitiFact.com offers a handy Truth-O-Meter, with a dial going from "true" to "pants-on-fire". That ought to lead to a better-informed electorate.rnBut fact-checkers have their limits. Politicians are not stupid; they leave themselves wiggle room. In a typical ad, every sentence is true, even if the overall impression is misleading. One of Mr Obama's, for example, talks of a factory closing in Pennsylvania and its equipment being shipped to China. Mr McCain "sold out" the workers, the ad claims. He voted against cracking down on China's unfair trade practices.