McCain Campaign Press Release - "In Case You Missed It": Obama Adviser Fact Checked On Air

On CNN's "Late Edition," Obama Senior Economic Adviser Austan Goolsbee Was Fact Checked Live On What Joe Biden Actually Said:

CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "He [Joe Biden] was on the Today Show. He opposed the bailout of AIG and then the Obama campaign the next day said there was no choice. Did Joe Biden make the same mistake that John McCain made?"

Austan Goolsbee: "Well, I would -- we don't have the transcript here, but I have read it and I would disagree a little bit. It was clear from the entire paragraph that Joe Biden was not saying he was opposing a bailout. What he was saying was that it's not their first choice along the lines of where John McCain ended up and where Senator Obama was all along."

Blitzer: "It was a pretty clear. I watched it that morning. It was pretty clear. He opposed the bailout, too, although, as you say, the position of the Obama campaign seemed to change based -- assuming that Joe Biden speaks for the Obama campaign -- it changed the next day, as well."

Watch The CNN On-Air Fact Check

What Biden Said: "No, I Don't Think They Should Be Bailed Out By The Federal Government." NBC'S MEREDITH VIEIRA: "But now we have this mess, Senator. Do you think that AIG should be bailed out by the federal government?" BIDEN: "No, I don't think they should be bailed out by the federal government. I'll tell you what we should do. We should try to correct the problems that caused this. And what's caused this is the profligate tax cuts to the very, very wealthy that John wants to continue." (NBC's "Today," 9/16/08)

Other Fact Checks Of Barack Obama's Remarks This Weekend:

New Hampshire Union Leader: "Obama In The Mud: So Much For Honesty." "In the past few weeks, Obama has thrown so many false accusations against John McCain that just keeping track of them has become difficult. And these aren't innocent errors. They are deliberate distortions of the sort Obama has always said he reviles. On Thursday, Obama said of McCain, 'He has consistently opposed the sorts of common-sense regulations that might have lessened the current crisis.' That's entirely untrue. As The Washington Post pointed out in an editorial on Friday, McCain in fact has supported many new regulations of financial institutions, including some that Obama opposed. ... Obama attacked McCain for having a top financial advisor who supported a deregulation bill a few years ago. Yet two top Obama financial advisors, with whom he met on Friday to help him form his response to the current troubles on Wall Street, supported the sa me bill, which was signed by President Clinton. ... This is not the Barack Obama so many voters in New Hampshire and elsewhere thought they knew. But it is the real Barack Obama. For despite his rhetoric, he is in fact campaigning so dishonestly that even The Washington Post and The New York Times have called him on it. Which means that he is in practice no different from those regular politicians against whom his entire campaign has been built." (Editorial, "Obama In The Mud: So Much For Honesty," New Hampshire Union Leader, 9/21/08)

FactCheck.org: "Obama's Social Security Whopper." "He tells Social Security recipients their money would now be in the stock market under McCain's plan. False. In Daytona Beach, Obama said that 'if my opponent had his way, the millions of Floridians who rely on it would've had their Social Security tied up in the stock market this week.' He referred to 'elderly women' at risk of poverty, and said families would be scrambling to support 'grandmothers and grandfathers.' That's not true." (Brooks Jackson, "Obama's Social Security Whopper," FactCheck.org, 9/20/08)

The Washington Post: Barack Obama "Statement Appeared To Be A Substantial Exaggeration." "'If my opponent had his way, the millions of Floridians who rely on it would've had their Social Security tied up in the stock market this week,' he said. 'Millions would've watched as the market tumbled and their nest egg disappeared before their eyes. Millions of families would've been scrambling to figure out how to give their mothers and fathers, their grandmothers and grandfathers, the secure retirement that every American deserves.' The statement appeared to be a substantial exaggeration, and the McCain campaign quickly fired back." (Dan Balz, "McCain Health-Care Article Fuels New Clash Over Economy," The Washington Post, 9/21/08)