Sarah's Speech 2

First impressions of the speech aside, it's wonderful to have a phalanx of bright researchers at hand to fact-check these things.

Hilzoy has a very readable, shortish list here. Mark Kleiman shares a much longer Obama campaign product with us here. It probably lost some formatting in the transition to html.

So, she told some lies. That's to be expected from that crowd, and it's hard to work up any indignation. They've been telling most of those lies for months, now. But there was something new:

"To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."

This sounded very human and genuine. But if Hilzoy is correct (and evidence is offered) that she actually cut funding for special needs schools by 62% in her 20 months as governor, it's not pleasant to think about what that passage really says about her. Just can't think of a way it makes her look good.