As Democrats brace for expected losses in the House and Senate, you can expect to hear a lot more of this in the weeks ahead: The president's party usually takes a beating in midterm elections. So when we heard Mary Jordan, a longtime foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, mention this pattern during the roundtable segment of ABC's This Week with Christiane Amanpour, we decided to check the history. Jordan said, "Well, the fact that the Republicans are going to do so well, really, it's just the history. The ...

As Democrats grapple with the stagnant economy and President Barack Obama's crumbling approval ratings, expect to hear this comparison a lot: Barack Obama in 2010 = Ronald Reagan in 1982. On the surface, the comparison is compelling. Reagan and Obama succeeded unpopular incumbents and rode a wave of goodwill into office. During their first two years, both presidents faced brutal recessions, and their approval ratings took big hits. Reagan's Republican Party ended up losing 26 House seats in the 1982 midterm elections (increasing the Democrats' majority). Yet only two years later, after the economy had regained its footing, ...

During a meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial board on Aug. 31, 2010, Sen. Barbara Boxer was asked about a controversial comment she made in 2007 to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about Rice not paying a "personal price" in the Iraq War because she did not have any immediate family members serving in the military. Rice and a number of political pundits later claimed Boxer's comment was an unfair jab because Rice didn't have children. In the editorial board meeting, Boxer, a California Democrat, sought to set the record straight about ...

Demonizing privatization was a key to the Democrat's success in defeating President George W. Bush's plan to change Social Security. Now they're using it again in an attempt to hold on to legislative majorities in the House and the Senate. In his latest TV ad, Senate candidate Michael Bennet, D-Col., questions whether his opponent, Ken Buck, is the right person for the job. The ad opens with a video of Buck saying he'll be the "voice of people on Main Street" but quickly transitions to ominous music and a narrator asking "Who is Ken Buck" and ...

Democrats used it to defeat President Bush's plans to change Social Security, and they're using it now to try to  hold on to legislative majorities in the House and the Senate. We are, of course, talking about "privatization." In her latest TV ad, Senate incumbent Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., says that there are "serious differences" between her and her opponent, Rep. John Boozman. First on the list, "unlike John, I am against privatizing Social Security and Medicare." History has shown that accusing your opponent of wanting to privatize Social Security is a good ...

Most politicians know how to pivot: In a political context, it means changing the subject you don't like to one that you do. House member Debbie Wasserman Schultz demonstrated the maneuver in an interview with Larry King on CNN, changing the subject from a new mosque in New York City all the way to Florida Republican candidate for Congress Dan Webster and privatizing Social Security. Here's how the exchange went, with conservative commentator Ben Stein jumping in for good measure: King: "Congresswoman Schultz, do you think that Muslim situation in New York ...

Education was the topic du jour on ABC's This Week on Aug. 29, 2010, and the discussion quickly came around to teachers unions. This Week host Christiane Amanpour asked Randi Weingarten, president of the American Teachers Federation, how schools can get around huge impediments in many collective bargaining agreements to getting rid of bad teachers. Weingarten responded with a quick defense of teachers unions. "Let me say this," Weingarten said. "First, the states that actually have lots of teachers in teacher unions tend to be the states that have done the best ...

The Nevada Senate race between incumbent Democrat Harry Reid and Republican challenger Sharron Angle has become one of the nation's most bitter, with Angle seeking to make Reid the poster child for the poor national and Nevada economies and Reid trying to portray Angle's staunchly conservative views as out of the mainstream. In a television ad released Aug. 23, 2010, Reid's campaign says that Angle wants to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. The ad relies on a clip from an interview Angle did with radio station KNPR, the NPR affiliate in ...

In their hard-fought race for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Joe Sestak have attacked each other over tax policy. Last week, we rated a Toomey ad blasting Sestak on the estate tax as Barely True. Now we'll look at a Sestak ad attacking Toomey's position on corporate taxes. The ad, funded by Sestak's campaign, features a clip of Toomey being interviewed on television. Here's the text of the ad: Narrator: "Do you think corporations pay their fair share? Pat Toomey ...

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is a well-known crusader for healthier eating. So it may have come as a surprise to hear him give a shout-out on ABC's This Week with Christiane Amanpour on Aug. 29, 2010, to the fast-food giant McDonald's -- or at least the restaurants in his homeland, England. Oliver, AKA the Naked Chef, is perhaps best known to American audiences for his Emmy-winning reality program Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC, in which he tried to transform the eating habits of the residents of Huntington, W.Va., statistically one of the unhealthiest cities in ...

In a discussion of the economy during the Aug. 29, 2010, edition of ABC's This Week with Christiane Amanpour, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile addressed the plight of the long-term unemployed. She said that "45 percent of those who've been unemployed, they've been unemployed for six months or longer. They desperately need the skills and the tools to get back into the workplace." We thought we'd check to see if Brazile was right. We turned to the website of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal agency that calculates the national ...

The Aug 29, 2010, edition of ABC's This Week with Christiane Amanpour featured a discussion of education policy chock full of education statistics. Here, we decide to look at one offered by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.   "In this country, we have a 25 percent dropout rate," he said. "That's 1.2 million students leaving our schools for the streets every single year. That is economically unsustainable, and that is morally unacceptable."   Is it really true that one of every four American ...

It sounds like a claim from a chain e-mail, but it's posted on the website of a Republican candidate for Congress. Is Big Brother really going to keep tabs on your flab? The charge was posted in a letter dated Aug. 10, 2010, on the website of Ann Marie Buerkle, a Republican who is seeking to oust Rep. Dan Maffei, a freshman Democrat representing a district in upstate New York. The letter, addressed to "Dear Friends," was signed by the ...

Vice President Joe Biden talks a lot about the success of the government's economic policies, but not everybody is persuaded. Reacting to Biden's Aug. 24, 2010, statement that "we are turning this great ship of state around," TV host Glenn Beck pointed to the country's dire fiscal situation. "Remember, Joe Biden says no doubt we're headed in the right direction on the economy. Well, we're just getting started with the news of the day. How about this one? Unemployment 9.6 percent. The real unemployment number is 16.5 for July. The federal government is now on track ...

While hyping his upcoming "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial, Glenn Beck ominously warned during his June 28, 2010, radio program this may be the last chance to attend a large rally at the historic Lincoln Memorial. "The government is trying to now close the Lincoln Memorial for any kind of large gatherings," Beck said. "This may be the last large gathering ever to assemble at the Lincoln Memorial. Historic, historic." The comment came in the context of Beck challenging critics ...

  Democrats want to make it easier for working parents to pay for child care, but congressional Republicans don't think that's a good idea, President Barack Obama told his audience in Columbus, Ohio, on Aug. 18, 2010. Asked whether the government has done anything to reduce child care costs, Obama said, "We have a child care credit in place. We’d like to make it stronger. This is one of those back-and-forths we’ve been having with the Republicans, because we actually think it is a good idea and they don’t. But I think that giving families ...

President Barack Obama is a Christian, but a minority of the American public keeps telling pollsters he's a Muslim. The Pew Research Center recently reported that 18 percent of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, up from 11 percent in March 2009. A Time magazine poll found even more -- 24 percent -- said he was a Muslim. PolitiFact has done extensive fact-checking on Obama's faith and has debunked false claims in chain e-mails that he attended a radical Islamic school, that his political rise mirrored a biblical tale about the ...

President Barack Obama has declared himself a Christian. He has worshipped in Christian churches, prayed with Christian ministers, and recounted how he knelt beneath a cross and felt God's spirit. And yet, a surprising number of Americans keep telling pollsters they believe he's a Muslim. The Pew Research Center last week reported that 18 percent of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, up from 11 percent in March 2009. A Time magazine poll also released last week found even more -- 24 percent - said he was a Muslim. (Read our longer ...

In the debate over the inaccurately named "Ground Zero Mosque," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been one of the strongest and most consistent political voices in favor of it. In what the AP described as an "impassioned speech" at an event on Aug. 24, 2010, marking the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Bloomberg said not allowing the proposal for a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero would be "compromising our commitment to fighting terror with freedom." And Bloomberg dismissed those who have called for ...

Washington Examiner editorial page editor Mark Tapscott warned readers Aug. 23, 2010, to expect to hear a lot from Democrats about the cost of the Iraq War. It might be expensive, he said, but not as expensive as President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus. Citing data from conservative writer Randall Hoven, Tapscott said, "Obama’s stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War -- more than $100 billion more." Really? Could the nearly seven-year-long war cost less than the 2009 stimulus, which was designed to keep ...