To conclude our year-end coverage, we asked PolitiFact staffers to choose the silliest and most unusual Truth-O-Meter items of 2009. Their choices show how the political discourse got downright wacky in the past year:
Aaaaah-choooo!
Vice President Biden said that when one passenger
sneezes on a plane
, “It goes all the way through the aircraft.”
Will they transmit back to KAOS headquarters?
A chain e-mail claimed people who opt for the public option in the Democrats’ health care plan
will have microchips implanted in their bodies
.
Below the belt:
Rush Limbaugh claimed that President Barack Obama
wants to mandate circumcision
.
Sarcasm you can dance to
: Singer Paul Hipp used World Health Organization figures in
a song mocking U.S. health care
.
History repeats itself:
Facing criticism that his policies will lead to socialism, President Barack Obama said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
was called a socialist, too
.
Picture not-quite-perfect
: Bloggers said an aerial photo showed more than
1 million people attended the tea party rally
in September, but the photo was taken at a 1997 Promise Keepers rally.
An epic work, but it lacks character development:
Sen. Orrin Hatch claimed that the Senate health care bill
is longer than Tolstoy’s
War and Peace
.
Line 17, Guns. Include total from Schedule G, handgun and automatic weapons, if required
: A chain e-mail claimed that you
must list all your guns
on your 2010 tax return.
Check your math
: President Barack Obama claimed the United States was
one of the world’s largest Muslim countries
.
He still hasn’t found what he’s looking for:
U2 lead singer Bono mixed up
figures about AIDS relief and foreign aid
.
Woof woof!
Glenn Beck claimed that the Democratic plan offered
health insurance for dogs
.
Our Sources
PolitiFact staffers