The story

Taking off the gloves in Orlando

By Bill Adair
Published on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 04:43 p.m.


SUMMARY: At a Fox/Republican Party of Florida debate in Orlando, the GOP candidates offered some exaggerations on crime and defense. And Mike Huckabee was Pants-On-Fire wrong that the majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were clergymen.

After several debates in which the candidates seemed to agree more than disagree, the gloves came off at the Republican debate in Orlando on Oct. 21, 2007.

Prompted by provocative questions from the Fox TV panelists, the candidates emphasized their differences with each other. About the only thing they agreed upon was their dislike of Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was mentioned 26 times.

The candidates recycled a few claims we already had checked and offered plenty of new ones:

* Sen. John McCain criticized Clinton for supporting a $1-million federal grant to a museum for the Woodstock music festival. We found McCain was right that Clinton played lead for the federal money. We rated his claim True.

* Mitt Romney repeated his claim that the military shrank under President Clinton. That's misleading because the defense shrinkage began under the first President Bush and had bipartisan support. So we are reissuing our Half True.

* Rudy Giuliani continued to trumpet his record on crime. We find, as we did when we first examined his record with this story that he has some numbers right and earns a True but is exaggerating other accomplishments because the trend began before he took office.

* Tom Tancredo stretched the truth with his claim that he had received high ratings from conservative groups. We give him a Mostly True.

* Perhaps the biggest mistake of the night came from Mike Huckabee, who said that "most" of the 56 Founding Fathers were clergymen. We found only one who was. That mistake was so far off the mark that Huckabee earned a Pants On Fire.

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About this story

Sources: See individual Truth-O-Meter rulings

Researchers: Bill Adair, Angie Drobnic Holan, Sasha Bartolf, Miranda Blue, Jody Kyle, Shirl Kennedy

Personalities: Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee

Related rulings:
Mitt Romney on Military and Defense, Sunday, October 21st, 2007. Ruling: Half-True | Details
Rudy Giuliani on Crime and Punishment, Thursday, May 31st, 2007. Ruling: True | Details
Rudy Giuliani on Crime and Punishment, Sunday, October 21st, 2007. Ruling: Barely True | Details
John McCain on Government Spending and the Federal Budget, Sunday, October 21st, 2007. Ruling: True | Details
Rudy Giuliani on Legal Issues, Sunday, October 21st, 2007. Ruling: Barely True | Details
Fred Thompson on Legal Issues, Sunday, October 21st, 2007. Ruling: Mostly true | Details
Mike Huckabee on Religion, Sunday, October 21st, 2007. Ruling: Pants on fire! | Details
Ron Paul on Foreign Affairs, Sunday, October 21st, 2007. Ruling: Mostly true | Details
Tom Tancredo on Job Accomplishments, Sunday, October 21st, 2007. Ruling: Mostly true | Details

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