What he said: Going into the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, President Obama led in polls by 3 points.
True: The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Oct. 2 the results of a NBC/WSJ poll, that found that Obama led by 3 points.
What he said: Gallup now reports that Romney is up to 50 percent and Obama is at 46 percent.
True: Gallup’s recent polling shows that Romney is leading by 4 points.
What he said: Seven out of nine of past presidential debates favor the challenger.
True: Pundits on all major news networks agreed that Romney won the first debate. Obama followed the trend of incumbents before him with a lackluster performance.
What he said: Obama’s approval ratings are lower than incumbents who have been re-elected in the past, but higher than incumbents who have lost reelection.
True: Gallup reported in August that “The 50 percent approval mark is significant because post-World War II incumbent presidents who have been above 50% percent job approval on Election Day were easily re-elected. Presidents with approval ratings below 50percent have more uncertain re-election prospects.”
It is important to note that recent polls say Obama has dropped to 49 percent approval.
What he said: The recovery from the modern American recession has been the worst since WWII.
True: An Associated Press analysis in August showed that the recession that began in 2009 has had the weakest and slowest recovery since WWII.
What he said: We’ve seen GDP growth slow to 2.2 percent.
True: A report published in August reviewed the first quarter of 2012 and reported that GDP growth was at 2.2 percent.
What he said: Twenty-three million Americans are unemployed, working part-time in search of full-time positions or have quit searching for a job.
True: Although Mitt Romney recently misrepresented this figure, Rove got it right. Twenty-three million Americans are unemployed, have stopped looking for jobs or are underemployed.
What he said: America has the highest percentage of unemployed young people since 1948.
True: Pew Research Center reported in February that 54 percent of young adults from 18-24 are employed, which is the lowest figure seen since the government began collecting this data in 1948.
What he said: The U.S. added 114,000 jobs last month, which was lower than the month before, which was lower than previous six months before.
True: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the U.S. added 114,000 jobs in September. This was down from 120,000 jobs in August.
What he said: One out of two college graduates move back in with their parents.
True: CNN reported in July that more than half of college graduates move back home.
What he said: America now has the smallest percentage of people in the workforce since 1981.
True: The Huffington Post reported that the percentage of people in the workforce is the lowest since December of 1981.
What he said: The $862 billion stimulus bill promised to get unemployment below 6 percent.
True: Obama did make that campaign promise and the stimulus bill did end up costing $862 billion.
What he said: Government spending accounts for 25 percent of GDP.
False: Government spending was $2.5 billion at the end of last year. Overall GDP was $13.441 billion. Government spending accounts for 19 percent of GDP, not the commonly cited 25 percent.
What he said: National debt takes up 70 percent of GDP.
True: The Congressional Budget Office predicted that cumulative federal debt will reach 70 percent of GDP (the highest level since WWII) by the end of this year.
