Mitt Romney and the Truth-O-Meter

Editor’s Note: The is the last in a series of stories summarizing our ratings on the Republican candidates for president. You can read them all here.

Mitt Romney has campaigned as the Republican candidate who operates on an even keel, without a lot of drama or surprises. Likewise, his PolitiFact scorecard is a model of balance, with a relatively even distribution of true and false statements.

PolitiFact has fact-checked 88 statements made by the former Massachusetts governor. That includes statements from his first run for the presidency in 2008.

We’ve rated 20 statements True; 15 Mostly True; 19 Half True; 13 Mostly False, 13 False, and 8 Pants on Fire. That means he has about the same number of True and Mostly True (35) as Mostly False/False/Pants on Fire (34).

Romney isn’t afraid to throw a punch against his opponents, and he’s received a range of ratings for his points. He’s attacked Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Social Security and job creation, and he’s attacked former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich on illegal immigration and child labor laws.

His attacks against President Barack Obama have been harsh and repeated, yet often inaccurate. He said several times that Obama has apologized for America or that the United States is “inches away” from no longer being a free economy. Seven of the eight statements we’ve rated Pants on Fire involve Obama or Obama’s policies in some way.

Romney has won more accurate ratings when talking about his record as governor of Massachusetts, where he served from 2003 to 2007. He got a True rating for saying he followed the state law on records preservation and another True for saying that people in Massachusetts by a 3 to 1 margin like the health care plan he signed into law in 2006.