Bit by bit, building up the image

Why in the second presidential debate - which I blew off for Gil Shaham's amazing performance of the Stravinsky violin concerto - are there still factual inaccuracies? You get off the podium and speak Directly To The Voters, but you're still twisting things around.

McCain, we'll start with you. You're not going to give $5000 to individuals like you said but to households. It's a big difference. This is like when Obama said in the first debate that 95% of the "American people" (whoever they are) will receive tax cuts. Same deal - 95% of families. The score: McCain -1, Obama -1.

McCain, you also said that Obama voted 94 times to increase taxes. Factcheck.org pointed out that at least 40 of these don't really count. That's a half-point docked. Oh, and offshore drilling will decrease the price of oil? Really? The sad thing is that people believe that. I'm taking away two points for being delusional.

If anyone knows where the number $700 billion came from, help me out. McCain says we're giving it to "countries who don't like us" - then be an Indian giver and take it back! Minus one for confusion. I feel like we're surprised our hands are gritty from playing in the sandbox.

And Obama, dude, you said in the first and the second debates that Iraqis have a $79 billion surplus. Their surplus is at least $30 billion, which is way lower but still sounds impressive. Can't we just trust the facts to be right? Two points off for repeating this one and not getting it right between debates.

Final score: McCain -4.5, Obama -3. Biden, +1 for correctly defining the word "maverick" for us all in clear, non-jingoist language. Please let us strike it from Webster's on November 5.