Greg Sargent - Forget the debate. The race will be Romney versus Perry: A good read from the AP’s Thomas Beaumont explaining why what you’re seeing now is just a sideshow in advance of the likely standoff between Mitt and Rick Perry.
I'm not too excited about it as we all know during campaigns people say all sorts of things that just don't add up ...We will have OUR Fact Checks also ..
This is the Deal .. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)
A FEW highlights:
Romney gets his statistics essentially right, according to White House historical records (see table 15.5), but..
Romney’s statement that the United States is “inches away” from not having a free economy is rhetorical nonsense. There are many metrics one could use to disprove it, but here’s one: the conservative Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom. The United States ranks ninth out of 179 countries. There’s still a long way to go before the nation catches up with North Korea. [ http://www.heritage.org/index/Ranking ]
“In the last two months, I was leading on the issue of not increasing the debt ceiling.”
— Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.)
Bachmann does not play a leadership role in Congress and had virtually no involvement in the debt ceiling discussions, except rhetorically.
“The country’s bankrupt and nobody wanted to admit it. And when you’re bankrupt, you can’t keep spending.”
— Rep. Ron Paul (Texas)
Under no definition is the United States “bankrupt.” The nation has a large debt as a percentage of its economy, and that is an issue of concern. But it is able to pay its debts and its bonds are still regarded as the gold standard in the financial markets — which is why investors have flocked to buy U.S. Treasuries during this period of market turmoil.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
