A challenge to Obama and Romney: Deliver one truthful campaign speech

Gentlemen: Sometimes to your irritation, I have spent the past 16 months writing the Fact Checker column for The Washington Post, vetting the statements uttered by politicians in both parties. I know you don’t really like the Pinocchios I bestow on a regular basis to both of you for inaccurate or misleading remarks (except when they’re pinned on the other guy). But, based on the reader e-mails I receive every day, I can assure you that voters are hungry for clear, understandable prose — without spin, dissembling or hype.

So, with the presidential election looming in exactly six months, I would like to issue a challenge to you both: Give at least one campaign speech, on a substantive policy issue, lasting at least 15 minutes, that does not contain a single factual error or misstatement. That means no sugar-coating of your record, no exaggerated claims about your opponent’s record, and no assertions that are technically true but lack crucial context. If you do, not only would you win the ultimate Geppetto Checkmark — which I award on those rare occasions of complete accuracy — but you would earn the gratitude of the American people, who are eager for hard truths.

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The rise of political fact-checking is a testament to this eagerness. Along with The Post, FactCheck.org, housed at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and PolitiFact, a Pulitzer Prize-winning operation of the Tampa Bay Times, vet your claims daily. The Associated Press, the New York Times, ABC News and CNN have also designated individual reporters to check politicians’ claims.

Based on my experience writing my column, and my extensive conversations with your staff members, I know that you and your aides spend a lot of time discussing exactly how to frame something. There is bound to be a natural tension between a catchy phrase and exactitude.

Don’t give in to temptation — stick with the facts.

I like to think that my “little Pinocchios” (as one White House aide referred to the Fact Checker’s rating scale) have had an effect. One administration official recently explained to me how, when faced with a choice of figures, the administration took the more modest number in hopes of avoiding any Pinocchios. As for the likely Republican nominee, I’ve noticed, Mitt Romney, that you tweak your words ever so slightly after a negative column.

Our Pinocchio Tracker indicates that you have been the two major 2012 presidential candidates with the lowest average number of Pinocchios. (Your claims are rated on a scale of one to four Pinocchios: Four indicates a whopper; a Geppetto Checkmark counts as zero. The tracker produces an average rating from all of the columns. President Obama has been rated 45 times and Romney 34times as of Friday evening.) In fact, you are nearly tied, with the president at 1.91 and the former governor at 1.97. No other candidate has come close: Michele Bachmann ended up at 3.08, Ron Paul at 2.6, Rick Santorum at 2.53, Newt Gingrich at 2.44 and Rick Perry at 2.41.

Still, an average of nearly 2 is nothing to brag about. On the scale, two Pinocchios means “significant omissions and/or exaggerations.” As you know, it does not necessarily mean factual error. A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing with words and using legalistic language that means little to ordinary people.