You’ve heard of the Person of the Year and the Sportsman of the Year — get ready for PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year.
For our year-in-review coverage, PolitiFact soon will be announcing our Lie of the Year — the most significant falsehood of 2009. Our staff is examining the claims we’ve rated False or Pants on Fire and will be choosing the one that reached all-star status and played an important role in the nation’s political discourse.
We’re also inviting PolitiFact readers to vote on the most important lie. Here are our eight nominees:
“When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft.”
—
Joe Biden
on Thursday, April 30, 2009, in an interview on
The Today Show
Preventive care “saves money.”
—
Barack Obama
on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009, in a speech to Congress
“You lie!” (in response to President Obama saying health reform would not insure illegal immigrants.)
—
Joe Wilson
on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009, in the audience at a joint session of Congress
Seniors and the disabled “will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care.”
—
Sarah Palin
on Friday, Aug. 7, 2009, in a message posted on Facebook
John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, “has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population.”
—
Glenn Beck
on Wednesday, July 22, 2009, in his TV program
An amendment to the House health reform bill “puts new restrictions on women’s access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market even when they would pay premiums with their own money.”
—
Nita Lowey
on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, in a speech on the House floor
A birth certificate shows Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
—
Orly Taitz
on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009, in an attachment to a lawsuit
Page 92 of the House health care bill “says specifically that people can’t purchase private health insurance after a date certain.”
—
Michele Bachmann
on Friday, Oct. 30, 2009, in an interview on the Fox News Channel.
Don’t delay!
CLICK HERE TO CAST YOUR VOTE.
(
Update, Dec. 16, 2009:
Voting is now closed for the “Lie of the Year.” A link to results to come soon.)
Our Sources
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