When presidents play politics

SUMMARY: Bill Clinton inaccurately defends his own statements from the campaign trail, while George W. Bush takes a questionable shot at Barack Obama.

We might like to think of our presidents as meeting with foreign leaders and studying dossiers in the Oval Office, but they also serve as leaders of their political parties.

In George W. Bush’s case, he’s still the Republican Party’s top elected official, and reporters can’t help but ask what he thinks about happenings on the campaign trail.

Former President Bill Clinton is even closer to the action with his wife running for office.

As Election Day approaches, we’ll be treating current and former presidents like the political players they are and running their statements through our Truth-O-Meter. Consider yourselves forewarned, Jimmy Carter and George H.W.!

In the past week, Bush and Clinton made statements that we found worth checking and neither one of them did very well with accuracy:

* Clinton defended himself against critics of his remarks about Sen. Barack Obama. “Everything I have said has been factually accurate,” Clinton said.

Excuse us, sir, but that’s baloney. We checked Clinton’s campaign trail statements previously and found one

False

and another

Half True

. Now we must find Clinton’s new claims of accuracy to be

False

.

* George W. Bush, meanwhile, gave an interview over the weekend to

Fox News Sunday

in which he said Obama wants to “attack Pakistan and embrace (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad.” Um, not even close. Obama said he’ll go after terrorists hiding in Pakistan if the authorities there don’t, and he promised a diplomatic effort with Iran. We rated Bush’s statement

False

.