Sen. Barack Obama gestures at a campaign event. (AP Photo)

Email   |  

Editor’s Note: This is the last of a three-part series focusing on misstatements, prevarications and falsehoods proclaimed by the three major presidential candidates.

Click here to read Part One: Hillary Clinton
Click here to read Part Two: John McCain

Sen. Barack Obama has gained a fervent following by preaching messages of hope and change, but has a long campaign tethered him to the sphere of age-old politics? A series of statements on the stump suggest Obama is perfectly capable of joining the ranks of silver-tongued politicians.

1. Spiritual Adviser, April 29, 2008
Non-truth: Obama told reporters at a news conference that his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was never his spiritual counselor.

“He was never my spiritual mentor. He was my pastor. And to some extent how the press characterized in the past that relationship, I think, was inaccurate,” Obama said.

Truth: During a June 5, 2007, speech at Hampton University, Obama introduced Wright by describing him as “the guy who puts up with me, counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me.”

Sources: CQ, Newsmaker Transcripts, Special Events April 29, 2008; “Obama Says White House Ignores ‘Quiet Riot’ Among Blacks,” CBS2Chicago.com, June 5 2007.

2. Jeremiah Wright, April 16, 2008
Non-truth: During a March 14 interview with FOX News, Obama said he was never in church when his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, made the now infamous sermons during which he proclaimed “God damn America” and asserted that the U.S. brought on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with its own “terrorism.”

“None of these statements were ones I had heard myself personally in the pews,” Obama said, calling the sermons “unacceptable and inexcusable.”

Truth: During a March 18 speech Obama said, “Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes.” He added, “The remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial … they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country.”

Nearly one month later, on April 16, Obama told a group of Jewish leaders in Philadelphia that he “did not become aware of [Wright's statements] until I started running for president,” implying that he did not hear the remarks while he “sat in church.”

Sources: “Obama Rejects Sermons from Pastor Who Was Like an Uncle,” FOXNews.com, March 14, 2008; “Remarks of Senator Barack Obama, ‘A More Perfect Union’” barackobama.com, March 18, 2008; “Obama Tells Philadelphia Jewish leaders He Would Not Sit Down With Hamas,” Obama speech, pool report, April 16, 2008.

3. Selma Voting-Rights March, March 5, 2007
Obama told an audience at a Selma Voting Rights March commemoration that during this historic civil rights event in 1965 “there was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma.”

Non-truth: He said his parents “got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Alabama.”

Truth: Obama was born in 1961 — four years before the 1965 Selma march occurred. He later clarified his remarks, saying, “I meant the whole civil rights movement.”

Sources: “Sen. Obama Delivers Remarks at Selma Voting Rights March Commemoration, Selma, Ala.,” Newsmaker Transcripts, March 4, 2007; “Clinton and Obama Unite, Briefly, in Pleas to Blacks,” The New York Times, March 5, 2007.

4. Lobbyist Money, April 12, 2008
Non-truth: During campaign speeches, Obama frequently makes the contention that “I’m the only candidate who doesn’t take money from corporate PACs and lobbyists.”

Truth: Obama has raised nearly $14 million from lawyers and lobbyists. In October, Obama raised about $125,000 at a fundraising event in the Washington offices of Greenberg Traurig, the law firm that once employed convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Obama has sought to draw a distinction between “lawyer advocates” and “lawyer lobbyists,” but some non-partisan experts see that as “a distinction without a difference,” as they both operate as special interests.

Sources: “Full Text of Obama’s Speech to the Alliance for American Manufacturing,” Time.com, April 14, 2008; “Obama Draws Fine Line Between Lobbyists, Lawyer Donors,” Newsday, April 12, 2008.

5. Nuclear Legislation, Dec. 30, 2007
During a campaign event in Newton, Iowa, Obama touted his sponsorship of a bill in the Senate that required nuclear power plant owners to notify authorities immediately of all radioactive leaks, no matter how small.

Non-truth: That was “the only nuclear legislation that I’ve passed” he told the crowd.

Truth: Obama had rewritten the bill to ease its passage and removed the language requiring the reporting of leaks. The bill died when it reached the full Senate, and did not pass as he claimed.

Source: “Nuclear Leaks and Response Tested Obama in Senate,” New York Times, Feb. 3, 2008.

6. Law Professor, March 30, 2008
Non-truth: During a campaign fundraiser in Tallahassee, Fla., in March 2007, Obama spoke of his time as a “constitutional law professor” at the University of Chicago, “which means unlike the current president, I actually respect the Constitution.”

Truth: Obama never held a professor position at the University of Chicago. The university said he was a lecturer and taught courses to students at the law school, but “did not hold the title of professor of law.”

Sources: “Obama: Bush Fails to Respect the Constitution,” Associated Press, March 30, 2007; “No ‘Professor’ Obama at U. of C,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 30, 2008.

7. Life Magazine Claims in Obama’s Autobiography, March 25, 2007
In his 1995 autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” Obama cited a copy of Life magazine as having stirred a racial awakening in him.

Non-truth: He wrote that when he was 9 years old, living in Indonesia, he flipped through Life magazine and read an article about a black man who had scarred and ruined his skin applying chemicals that promised to make his skin white. “I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar moments of revelation,” he wrote.

Truth: No article or pictures exist of any such story, according to Life historians. When questioned about the mix-up, Obama couldn’t name the specific magazine in which he read the article.

Source: “The Not-So-Simple Story of Barack Obama’s Youth,” Chicago Tribune, March 25, 2007.

8. Obama’s Fluency, March 25, 2007
Non-truth: Obama has claimed on numerous occasions that, as a boy growing up in Indonesia, he was fluent in the country’s language. “It had taken me less than six months to learn Indonesia’s language, its customs, and its legends,” he wrote in “Dreams From My Father.”

Truth: His first-grade teacher in Jakarta said he struggled with the language, needing help with pronunciation and vowel sounds, and teachers and friends remembered him as a being a quiet boy as a result of his difficulties.

Source: “The Not-So-Simple Story of Barack Obama’s Youth,” Chicago Tribune, March 25, 2007.

Email   |  

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. —  The museum now occupying the Fayetteville house that Bill and Hillary Clinton resided in has seen attendance rise as the presidential race heats up.

Visits to the house at 930 California Blvd. are up 65 percent over last year, museum director Brittany Starr said.

The Clintons were married in the one-story brick home on Oct. 11, 1975 and lived there from August 1975 to December 1976, when they moved to Little Rock so Bill Clinton could take office as Arkansas’ attorney general.

The museum offers glimpses of the life the Clintons shared when Bill Clinton was teaching students at the University of Arkansas Law School. Bill Clinton served as Arkansas governor for 12 years before becoming president in 1993.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s run for president is giving the home a fresh appeal, Starr said, and the increased traffic at the museum has opened the door for more events and programs.

Weddings, debate watches, movie nights and speakers are among the events Starr has booked.

“We have more and more visitors coming in that want to know all about Hillary, which is different because the house used to be more focused on Bill,” Starr said.

Among the items on display are photos of Hillary Clinton and a replica of her wedding dress.

“We had the speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives come talk one night, and this past summer we did movie nights where we watched semipolitical movies,” she said.

Starr said on event days the house attracts about 50 to 100 people on top of its normal stream of visitors.

The house is one of four stops for people visiting the Arkansas cities in which Bill Clinton lived — his birthplace at Hope, Hot Springs and Little Rock. Starr says about 10 visitors per week are making all four stops.

“I had one couple from up north come because the husband decided to take his wife on a surprise honeymoon, and she chose to do the ‘Billgrimage,”‘ Starr said.

The house is also available for political events, Starr said.

“Bill became well-known when he ran for Congress, so it’s kind of a cool place for meet and greets,” she said.

Starr says future plans for the museum include hosting children’s events and applying for nonprofit tax status so the museum can receive grants.

Email   |  

REPUBLICANS

John McCain: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma

Mitt Romney: Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Utah

Mike Huckabee: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia

DEMOCRATS

Hillary Clinton: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee

Barack Obama: Alaska, Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Utah

STATE

Alabama: Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee

Alaska: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

Arizona: Hillary Clinton, John McCain

Arkansas: Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee

California: Hillary Clinton, John McCain

Colorado: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

Connecticut: Barack Obama, John McCain

Delaware: Barack Obama, John McCain

Georgia: Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee

Idaho (D): Barack Obama

Illinois: Barack Obama, John McCain

Kansas (D): Barack Obama

Massachusetts: Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney

Minnesota: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

Missouri: Barack Obama, John McCain

Montana (R): Mitt Romney

New Jersey: Hillary Clinton, John McCain

New Mexico: TBD

New York: Hillary Clinton, John McCain

North Dakota: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

Oklahoma: Hillary Clinton, John McCain

Tennessee: Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee

Utah: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

West Virginia (R): Mike Huckabee

Email   |  

Tornadoes and severe storms in the South caused some polls to close early and disrupted voting in some states on Super Tuesday.

In Tennessee, at least four counties closed their polls early because of a severe storm front moving into the state Tuesday afternoon that brought damaging winds, hail and tornadoes.

The State Election Commission said it closed some precincts in McNairy, Tipton and Fayette counties to protect the safety of election workers.

Jane Heathcott, administrator of elections for Dyer County in northwestern Tennessee confirmed that all of its 16 precincts were shuttered at 6 p.m. The precincts were almost completely empty when the doors closed, Heathcott said, and voters still were able to vote at the election commission headquarters in Dyersburg.

But at least one voter who was turned away did not cast her vote. Stacy Williams from Dyersburg said that when she and her husband showed up at about 6:30 p.m., election officials told them the polls were closed due to bad weather.

“At the time, it was not even raining - we were stripped of our right to vote on a prediction of inclement weather,” she told FOX News in an email.

In Arkansas, tornadoes touched down, causing three deaths, several injuries, property damage and widespread power outages.

Natasha Naragon, a spokeswoman with the Secretary of State’s Office, said polling sites in Gassville and Conway County had to close because of concerns over severe weather. One polling site in Atkins continued functioning even as it served as a Red Cross shelter, Naragon said.

At one point, the lights at Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s operation center in Little Rock dimmed once and went completely out. Some people are concerned the outages could significantly delay returns statewide, election officials told FOX News.

Click here for more storm coverage from FOXNews.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Email   |  

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won his state Republican presidential primary on Tuesday while Hillary Clinton, the state’s former first lady, picked up a win among Democrats.

“Thanks to the wonderful people of Arkansas, where it all started and where tonight, we have a wonderful, wonderful victory here at home,” Huckabee told supporters Tuesday night.

Huckabee thanked supporters in his home state while Clinton’s campaign sent out a victory e-mail immediately following the projections.

“We’re very excited that Hillary Clinton has added a third red state in her victory column,” according to an e-mail statement that suggested the results show the state’s former first lady can defeat Democratic rivals in Republican strongholds.

“The Obama campaign has been spinning that they have a monopoly on red states; tonight we showed they don’t,” the statement said.

Huckabee, who trimmed his campaign budget recently, vowed to stay in the race despite the outcome of Tuesday night’s primaries. He did surprisingly well in several state races.

“We love this state, always have and always will,” Huckabee, who served as governor of Arkansas for more than 10 years. “And tonight we’re reminded again why, because of the incredible people who believed in us early and stayed with us through all of the times when so many people said ‘you can’t get there.’ “

Earlier on Tuesday, Huckabee cast his vote in North Little Rock with his wife Janet.

“I think to vote for yourself for president of the United States is pretty overwhelming,” Huckabee said.

Meanwhile, a tornado swept across the state, killing a couple and a child. Several twisters touched down in the state, disrupting voting in the state’s presidential primary.

Despite the weather, election officials reported no problems with touch-screen voting machines and only received phone calls on routine matters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Email   |  

HOPE, Ark. — Finding evidence of Hope’s two most well-known exports — Bill Clinton and watermelons — is hardly a challenge. But reminders of Mike Huckabee, the presidential hopeful billed as the other man from Hope, are less abundant in this small southwestern Arkansas town.

Signs on the interstate welcome visitors to the birthplace of Clinton and point tourists to the former president’s first home. Paintings of watermelons appear through the town, even on the windows of abandoned storefronts.

There are few clues that this town also created Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor now contending for the Republican presidential nod. It was only a month or so ago that the town’s museum added exhibits chronicling Huckabee’s upbringing and ties to the town, and even that is dwarfed by the Clinton artifacts.

“I don’t know what we would do if Huckabee won. We don’t have any more room,” said Gary Johnson, director of the town’s visitor center and museum.

That may not be a problem the town of 10,500 will have to face. Huckabee won the Iowa caucus but hasn’t won since. He is struggling financially and may be more likely to make the GOP ticket as a running mate. A vice president from Hope doesn’t sound as exciting for the town that has been linked to the White House ever since Clinton ended his speech at the 1992 Democratic National Convention with the words, “I still believe in a place called Hope.”

The city may still get a chance in the spotlight, with Hillary Rodham Clinton also seeking the presidential nomination. Though not an Arkansas native, the former U.S. first lady has tried to highlight her ties to the state where she served as first lady for 12 years.

Hope has already capitalized on its ties to Bill Clinton, who was born in Hope and grew up in Hot Springs. It transformed an abandoned train depot into a museum on the town’s history, with nearly all the exhibits Clinton-related. Clinton’s birthplace home was transformed into a museum that city leaders have tried to promote as a sidetrip to the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock.

Hope leaders say they haven’t seen the same interest yet in Huckabee, who turned from an underdog in the White House race last year to a serious contender after a victory in the Iowa caucus. Aside from reporters visiting the town for background and biographical details, there have been few people traveling to the city to visit Huckabee landmarks.

Even though the town is tightly connected to an icon from the Democratic party, Huckabee frequently talks about his experience growing up in Hope and joking about his and Clinton’s experiences there.

“I’m from Hope, Arkansas. You may have heard of it. All I’m asking is, give us one more chance,” he’s told audiences before.

Like Clinton, Huckabee even played off the title of his hometown for a campaign book, “From Hope to Higher Ground,” which began with Huckabee’s memories of growing up there.

“It was the kind of place where I could misbehave eight blocks from home, but by the time I pedaled back to 509 East Second Street, six people would have called my parents to report my behavior,” he wrote.

The town’s love affair with Huckabee has been a mixed one. Shortly before he left office, a lake in the town was named after the former governor and his wife, Janet. But in 2003, as the then-governor toured the state to tout an education plan that included consolidation of some rural school districts, a group in Hope declined to be included.

Huckabee said he was disappointed by the move, “a decision that appears to be driven by local politics.”

Politically, Huckabee’s hometown has offered mixed payoffs. While Hempstead County supported Huckabee’s 1998 re-election bid as governor and voted for its native son as lieutenant governor in 1994, the county chose Democrat Jimmie Lou Fisher over Huckabee in the 2002 gubernatorial campaign.

Huckabee’s hometown also didn’t show him much love in his first political campaign, choosing incumbent Democratic Sen. Dale Bumpers over the young Southern Baptist preacher in 1992.

Despite the lukewarm reception from his hometown, Huckabee’s success in the race brings out hope, if not a little confusion, from locals over the town’s political fortunes.

“It hasn’t been a great place for people to migrate to, so I guess this is what we’re known for sending out of here. Other than raising watermelons, I guess we also raise politicians,” Harvey Fullerton, a retired police officer, said on a recent morning as he sipped coffee at an Andy’s Restaurant near Hope’s downtown.

“I don’t think it’s the water or anything,” piped in Claude Fitzgerald, an 89-year-old retired farmer who’s lived in Hope since 1974.

Residents who witnessed the town’s excitement during Clinton’s run in 1992 say the feeling just isn’t the same with Huckabee running.

“I’m thrilled about it, but it’s kind of becoming old hat to us,” said Jan Fontaine, who owns a barber shop in Hope.

The election has been of particular concern for Hope, which has struggled financially in recent years and saw one of its largest employers — Champion Parts — lay off 215 workers last year.

“It’s pretty slim right now. Everybody’s struggling to get by,” said David Hartsfield, who owns a pest-control company and has lived in Hope for 30 years.

“I usually vote either side of the fence, but after the president we’ve got now I’ve said I’ll vote Democrat for a long time. But now if Huckabee got the nomination I probably could vote for Huckabee,” Hartsfield said. “If it comes down to Hillary and Huckabee, I think I’d vote for Huckabee.”

For those who knew Huckabee personally, the choice isn’t as clear. Mary Nell Turner, who taught Huckabee high school journalism, said she’s a lifelong Democrat and unlikely to support her former student’s presidential campaign.

Turner, 88, has had personal connections to both of the Hope natives with presidential ambitions. She said she remembers as a teenager seeing Clinton’s grandfather deliver ice to her family’s home.

“It shows the American dream can come from a small place like Hope, I guess. It does say something, doesn’t it?” Turner said.