The story

The campaign goes nuclear

By Angie Drobnic Holan
Published on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 07:18 p.m.


SUMMARY: We look at an ad that touts Obama's nuclear record and a chain e-mail that slams it.

Nuclear weapons are the topic for a recent campaign ad promoting Sen. Barack Obama and an anonymous e-mail attacking him.

In a new television ad, Obama says the United States needs to take the lead internationally to keep nuclear weapons out of the wrong hands.

"The single most important national security threat that we face is nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists," Obama says in the ad. "What I did was reach out to Sen. Dick Lugar, a Republican, to help lock down loose nuclear weapons. We have to lead the entire world to reduce that threat. We can restore America’s leadership in the world."

We looked into the legislation Obama teamed up with Lugar to pass and rule his statement True.

We also looked at a chain e-mail that claims Obama wants to "unilaterally disarm" the United States. Obama never said that; he said he wanted a world free of nuclear weapons, as have foreign policy experts on both sides of the partisan divide. For nonexistent evidence, we rule this claim False.

Advertisement
Bookmark this
About this story

Sources: See individual items for sources.

Researchers: Angie Drobnic Holan

Personalities: Barack Obama

Related rulings:
Chain e-mail on Military and Defense, Wednesday, May 21st, 2008. Ruling: False | Details
Barack Obama on Military and Defense, Tuesday, July 15th, 2008. Ruling: True | Details

Contribute

No, we don’t want to take your money. But we are more than willing to listen if you know of any facts or story ideas for the Truth-O-Meter. truthometer@politifact.com

PolitiFact.com

PolitiFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly to help you find the truth in the presidential campaign. Every day, reporters and researchers from the Times and CQ will analyze the candidates' speeches, TV ads and interviews and determine whether the claims are accurate. >> More

Logos
Sorting out the truth in politics
Candidates

Search PolitiFact via Google

Browse
Feeds

Get PolitiFact:

Knight Batten Award
Advertisement