Well, you started with a broad generalization about the truthfullness of “liberals”, not specific instances by individuals. I thought it worth noting that the bad statistic did not originate with ‘liberals’ and was actually debunked by liberals.
Again, it is helpful to be accurate. Kerry took the bad statistic and repeated it. Dean did, in fact, exaggerate it. However, Clinton qualified it, indicating only that abortions were up in some states, something which is, in fact, true.
factcheck.org/article330.html
If you wish to contend that one political party is ‘truthful’ and the other ‘liars’, that is certainly your perogative, but spin and hyperbole seem to be the norm from all political players to me. Even in gravely important matters.
Take, for example, General Petraeus’ recent testimony to Congress. During it, he presented several graphs and statistics about violence in Iraq. However, in the days immediately following the testimony we learned that certain types of violence, like car bombings, were excluded from the reported numbers.
Similiarly, the General asserted that we are not providing weapons to Sunni militants, particularly those that have been aggressively persecuting Iraq’s Christians. “We have never given weapons to tribals,” he said. “What we have done is applaud when they ask if they can point their guns at al-Qaeda.” However, we learned from subsequent military testimony that we are giving the tribals money and then facilitating the use of that money in arms purchases.
Spin is what people do in the political arena. Sometimes they branch out into hyperbole and outright deceit. That is why I think that people concerned about being good Catholics and good citizens needs to take responsibility and dig beneath rhetoric and propaganda.
That is what I said, though, technically, Guttmacher founded the institute. I just provided the actual report instead of an article about it.