I really recommend FactCheck.org to anyone interested in the mud-slinging in the current campaign. And I do mean anyone. Because during a recent browse there myself, I was surprised, not once but twice, in ways that I'm a little embarrassed about. It goes a little like this:

Embarrassing Surprise #1

FactCheck.org is not MoveOn.org. By this, I mean that it isn't focused on just one side or the other of the issues. I had presumed that, since my introduction to the site was in the context of the Swift Boat Veterans for Revenge, the sight was pro-Kerry, or at least pro-Democrat. That was Embarrassing Mistake Number 1: assuming that any voice in the conversation must be absolutely on one side or the other. In fact, this site covers more than just the vets story, and covers misleading ads and statements from both sides of the campaign. Which leads me to...

Embarrassing Surprise #2

The Bush campaign does not have a monopoly on distortion of facts. This is by and far the more embarrassing of the two surprises. I'm not actually naïve-enough to think that the Kerry campaign wouldn't lie or at least exaggerate– really, I'm not. Or at least, I'm not usually. But I was in fact surprised to see bullet points on the site that addressed either cases where the GOP statements had been true, or where pro-Kerry ads were just as misleading as anything the pro-Bush camp had produced. And believe me when I say that I am at least as bothered by this as I am when the Bush camp does it. And not because I have some silly notion of the GOP being less-honest than the Dems.

Simply-put, I don't like it when either side does it, but when I've chosen a side, I like to think that they're a little more above-board than the other guy. And I realize that such is more than a little hopeful, to say the least. But it's like my complaint with so-called historical dramas like Titanic or Pearl Harbor (which is a whole separate journal entry for another day) that are themselves misleading: there is more than enough truth for them to avail themselves of, it seems incongruous to me that they would instead play fast and loose. But then, I know people who continue to support the swift-boat guys, even though the counter-arguments to their ads are all over the net.

So, if you've thus far dismissed the FactCheck guys out of a presumption that they're just a tool of the evil blame-America-first commie lib'rals, give them a look. You may be just as surprised as I was.