If you can't beat 'em . . . join 'em!

By Angie Drobnic Holan
Published on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.

Related rulings:

Obama's plan for health care reform "ends exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays."

David Axelrod, Thursday, August 13th, 2009.

Ruling: Mostly True | Details

Health care reform will not affect veterans' benefits.

David Axelrod, Thursday, August 13th, 2009.

Ruling: True | Details

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The White House is hoping this e-mail will go viral.

After spending days responding to inaccurate e-mails about the health care reform plan, the White House responded with its own e-mail from David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Barack Obama. The subject line was "Something worth forwarding."

As experts on chain e-mails , we must note that Axelrod's e-mail is sadly lacking in the traditional hallmarks. It doesn't make wild, poorly sourced claims. It doesn't mention Obama's birth certificate, not once.  And it's not WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS!!!!!

Axelrod even signed his name to it, a big chain e-mail no-no.

He made many claims about the health care plans in the e-mail and we decided to check two of them.

Axelrod wrote that health care reform will not affect veterans' benefits. We looked into the matter, talked to some veterans' groups, and rated the item True.

Axelrod also wrote that reform "ends exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays." We found new caps in the bill on out-of-pocket expenses that would help consumers. We quibbled with his definition of 'exorbitant' and rated his statement Mostly True.

Those ratings indicate David Axelrod still has a lot to learn about writing chain e-mails.