McCain's big night
By Bill Adair
Published on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 12:06 a.m.
Invoking his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and his family's long tradition of military service, Sen. John McCain accepted the Republican nomination for president and vowed to "fight for what's right for our country."
In a speech interrupted several times by protesters, McCain said, "With hard work, strong faith and a little courage, great things are always within our reach. Fight with me! Fight with me!"
We checked these claims from his speech:
• McCain said he would cut taxes, but that his opponent, Barack Obama, would raise them. We found that Half True.
• McCain said Obama "thinks we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power." We found that Half True.
We also checked these other statements from the past few days at the Republican convention:
• We found McCain was wrong when he claimed that running mate Sarah Palin got executive experience as a member of the PTA. We gave that one a False.
• We found Rudy Giuliani was exaggerating when he claimed the Democrats were afraid to mention "Islamic terrorism" at their convention. We gave that one a Barely True.
• Mike Huckabee was way off with his claim that Sarah Palin won more votes as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden won in the presidential primary. Huckabee was so far off that he earned a Pants on Fire.
Sources:See individual Truth-O-Meter items.
Researchers: Bill Adair
Names in this story: John McCain, Barack Obama
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PolitiFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and editors from the Times fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups and rate them on our Truth-O-Meter. We’re also tracking more than 500 of Barack Obama’s campaign promises and are rating their progress on our new Obameter. >> More
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