Yes, I know the debates and the election is over for a while now but I can’t get out of my mind all that finger pointing and lies or true outrageous statements being thrown around. Even all those heavy glossy mailings came to the house with one saying how great a candidate is and another saying how this candidate should practically be in jail. Can all this slander be legal? What the heck is the truth anyway? How do we know what is a true statement and what is false about anything in life?

We need to have the facts when it comes to just about anything. During the debates there was a lot of finger pointing and words being thrown around like it is not true, that’s a bunch of malarkey from Biden, he’s wrong from Ryan, that is completely and totally wrong from Romney, get the transcripts from Obama. The candidates constantly challenged each other’s claims but thank goodness there were people researching their statements.

There is a site called FactCheck.Org that researched a lot of the statements that were being tossed around. The workaholics are from The University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policies Center. The project of tracking the accuracy of what people say has been going on since 2003. They try to go to the most authoritative sources where they can find facts. If it is a claim about jobs, they will go where the economists are or look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and download the data themselves and check it out.

Now, through research we have found that many of the statements made during the debates were inaccurate . For example, in the past presidential debate Romney said, “In the last 4 years, women have lost 580,000 jobs. The researched numbers found that the true figure is closer to 93,000 jobs. That is quite a difference Mr. Romney.

Obama said, “Romney called the Arizona law a model for the nation. Part of the Arizona law said that law enforcement officers could stop folks because they suspect that maybe they might look like undocumented workers.” Researchers found that Romney was referring to a earlier less stringent law requiring employers to check the immigration status of employees. Romney was referring to an employment verification law enacted three years earlier. So both candidates misquoted the facts on issues. The American people got duped even at one of the most important discussions in the nation.

Throughout this past campaign there have been complaints and push backs from both sides. Stop tricking us and stick to the facts!!! Instead of thanking the lie detector groups they got a six page letter from the Obama camp to mind their own business. Another fact finding group is the Tampa Bay Times that has a site called PolitiFact.com run by a Pulitzer Prize writer who has fun with the Truth-0-Meter that goes off when a lie is detected. It then has another meter called Pants On Fire for repeating a false fact over and over which doesn’t make the statement true. You can even get it as a phone App.

Most networks including CBS News have fact check operations. Glen Kessler The Fact Checker for the Washington Post gives out Pinocchio noses for false facts. He says it is not about finding balance between liars. There are plenty of Pinocchio’s for both sides especially when it came to campaign advertisements. Obama had a TV advertisement calling Romney a Corporate Raider who shipped jobs to China and Mexico. Bain Capitol were not Corporate Raiders although you could find nasty things to say about what they did.

Why did the candidates continue to make false statements despite the fact checkers telling them they were wrong? Shouldn’t somebody hold someone accountable for spreading lies even if you think it will get you votes? Well, there aren’t any laws saying you can’t say or print anything you want to. Even in a court of law, it doesn’t matter what the truth is even though you solemnly swear on a Bible to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. That doesn’t automatically make you win a case.

As in everything in life the winner is the one who persuades so well that everyone believes him. Is it the truth? It doesn’t matter. It is all about winning. Winning your thoughts and feelings and faith. You must win people over in a political race, you must win the most jurors in a court case and even your preacher must win you over morally so his church can stay in business.