Let's summarize how you should view the two presidential candidates' advertisements in a nutshell: don't believe anything. Just don't believe it, no matter who is saying it.
The latest ridiculous ad comes from Obama who claims McCain supports cutting Social Security benefits in half. Here's the summary from factcheck.org:
A new Obama ad characterizes the "Bush-McCain privatization plan" as "cutting Social Security Benefits in half." This is a falsehood sure to frighten seniors who rely on their Social Security checks. In truth, McCain does not propose to cut those checks at all.
The ad refers to a Bush proposal from 2005 to hold down the growth of benefits for future retirees. Compared to the buying power of benefits paid to today's retirees, that would not have been a "cut" for anybody. It would have been a "cut" of half only in relation to benefits now promised to retirees who have yet to be born. And for average workers, that "cut" in 2075 was projected by one of Obama's own economic advisers to be 28 percent, not "half."
This is on top of the new McCain ad released this week where he once again accuses Barack Obama of wanting "skyrocketing" taxes on retirement, electricity, and heating oil, which are very misleading and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Here's a question that I would like to see be asked to the two candidates in a debate. "We all know that the FTC monitors the accuracy of advertisements made in commericals. Burger King can't run an ad that says McDonalds puts poison in its french fries because we have to protect the "rights" of the consumer to make an informed decision. Suppose the FTC monitored your campaign ads and the claims you make about yourself and your opponent and the agency imposed the same standards on those ads that they apply to product commercials. Would you not be in jail?"
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