President Obama and Vice President Biden made statements in their convention speeches about unemployment, Medicare and other issues that fact-checkers say appear inaccurate or at least misleading.
Among the questionable remarks were Biden's argument that "after the worst job loss since the Great Depression we created 4.5 million private sector jobs in the past 29 months" – a frequent response by the Obama campaign when questioned about the slow economic recovery.
The Associated Press and others point out that statement is misleading because it counts jobs from the recession's lowest point to where employment began to grow again – excluding jobs lost earlier in Obama's term and masking that overall unemployment has increased over that period.
"Overall, roughly 7.5 million jobs were lost during the recession that began in December 2007 and ended officially in June 2009," according to the wire service.
The Associated Press also points out that Obama said in his speech that he wants to use money saved by ending the wars to build highways, schools and bridges.
However, the wars were largely financed by borrowing "so there is no ready pile of cash to be diverted to anything else," the wire service writes.
The group FactCheck.org listed eight instances in which either Biden or Obama "spun" facts during their speeches Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C.
President Obama and Vice President Biden made statements in their convention speeches about unemployment, Medicare and other issues that fact-checkers say appear inaccurate or at least misleading.
Among the questionable remarks were Biden's argument that "after the worst job loss since the Great Depression we created 4.5 million private sector jobs in the past 29 months" – a frequent response by the Obama campaign when questioned about the slow economic recovery.
The Associated Press and others point out that statement is misleading because it counts jobs from the recession's lowest point to where employment began to grow again – excluding jobs lost earlier in Obama's term and masking that overall unemployment has increased over that period.
"Overall, roughly 7.5 million jobs were lost during the recession that began in December 2007 and ended officially in June 2009," according to the wire service.
The Associated Press also points out that Obama said in his speech that he wants to use money saved by ending the wars to build highways, schools and bridges.
However, the wars were largely financed by borrowing "so there is no ready pile of cash to be diverted to anything else," the wire service writes.
The group FactCheck.org listed eight instances in which either Biden or Obama "spun" facts during their speeches Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C.
