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The Ron Paul PolitiFact report card

By Meghan Ashford-Grooms January 4, 2012

As Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum battled for an Iowa caucus victory on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul landed firmly in third place, making him the No. 1 vote-getter among the Texans seeking the presidential nomination.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the other Lone Star State resident in the race, finished in fifth place, with 10 percent of the vote, compared with Paul's 21 percent and the 25 percent of Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.

Since 2007, when PolitiFact first fact-checked Paul, his statements have been rated 29 times by the Truth-O-Meter, most recently after he said in a Dec. 29 interview that there were only about eight or 10 incendiary sentences in newsletters that were published under his names for decades. We rated that claim False after reviewing a sample of the newsletters posted online and finding nearly three dozen sentences that we think many people would find objectionable.

Overall, Paul has received 14 True and Mostly True ratings, plus four Half True, four Mostly False, five False and two Pants on Fire ratings. The statements PolitiFact has tested cover frequent topics of Paul speeches, including monetary policy and the Federal Reserve, taxes, and the U.S. military's presence around the world.

Next in the presidential campaign season, the candidates head to New Hampshire, where they'll debate Saturday and Sunday ahead of the state's first-in-the-nation primary Jan. 10.

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Our Sources

New York Times, Iowa Republican caucuses results, accessed Jan. 4, 2012

PolitiFact, Ron Paul’s file, accessed Jan. 4, 2012

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The Ron Paul PolitiFact report card