Fox News FACT CHECKs Obama's speech "Depends what your definition of automobiles, is."

[underpants]

OBAMA: "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."

THE FACTS: Depends what your definition of automobiles, is. According to the Library of Congress, the inventor of the first true automobile was probably Germany's Karl Benz, who created the first auto powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine, in 1885 or 1886. In the U.S., Charles Duryea tested what library researchers called the first successful gas-powered car in 1893. Nobody disputes that Henry Ford created the first assembly line that made cars affordable.

Then they get defensive

OBAMA: "Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day."

THE FACTS: This may be so, but it isn't only Republicans who pushed for deregulation of the financial industries.(Did he say "Republicans"??) The Clinton administration championed an easing of banking regulations, including legislation that ended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That led to a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federal regulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidate Obama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation.

The rest is at the link. They have some points but most of it is just trying to throw a wet blanket with "some" "not sure" type normal stuff

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/24/fact-check-president-glosses-complex-realities/

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Actually this originally came out as an AP story

they printed it almost before the speech was finished last night.

Of course they printed it as news and not opinion.

[tangent90]

2. He meant 'automobile' as 'vehicle that defines America and represents its highest aspirations'

purty sure...

[Towlie]

3. Shattering American pride in Henry Ford won't earn Fox News any points.

[tangent90]

4. Not with their usual viewership, that's for sure.

:shrug:

[macllyr]

5. Cugnot's fardier was the first "automobile"

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (french inventor) built the steam-powered "Fardier" in 1769.

Napoleon Bonaparte refused to use his invention in the french army.

"He is believed to have built the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas-Joseph_Cugnot

[geek tragedy]

6. Why does Fox News hate America? n/t

[caraher]

7. I also though, "Wait, we didn't invent the auto..."

but Ford did invent the mass-produced auto, which is what really matters.

If these are the worst distortions they can come up with FOX and friens aren't going to get very far attacking Obama through "fact checks." Which is as it should be :)

[redqueen]

8. No, he didn't say "Republicans".

Their defensiveness speaks volumes.

[Viking12]

9. So Obama said was100% correct, but they need to find fault with it...

Liberal press my ass.

[DeeDeeNY]

10. Well they were always brutal in criticizing W's "facts"

Oh, wait.
:spray:

[Z_I_Peevey]

14. Yeah, they were all over that yellowcake forgery story.

:eyes:

[marshall]

11. History is written by the victor

That's the way it's always been. For the most part the information we have about what happened was recorded why whoever won.

Obama won. If he wants to say America invented the automobile, then America invented the automobile. And the history books will be rewritten accordingly.

That's the way it works.

[specialed]

12. BULLSHIT!

Phil Graham( R)Texas was the architect and driving force behind banking deregulation and Clinton signed off on a the Graham-Bliley act because the reps had a veto proof majority in the house.

[dkofos]

13. Since when did fox become a news organization??

[edbermac]

15. We'll let Olbermann and Maddow 'Fiction Check' Faux Noise.

:applause:

[Beer Snob-50]

16. MSNBC on the internet

had this same story this morning.