Fact-Checkers Ding Democrats, Too

Fact-checkers raked Republicans over the coals during their convention, but Democrats haven't exactly been squeaky clean, either. Here are some of the distortions spotted on night one of the convention:

• Julian Castro said the Romney-Ryan budget would "gut Pell grants." Paul Ryan's budget doesn't actually cut Pell grants, though it does prevent a scheduled increase in their maximum size and make it harder to qualify for them, the Washington Post points out.

• Castro also said that 4.5 million "new jobs" have been created under Obama. That's from an Obama campaign talking point, which starts counting in February 2010, and counts only private-sector jobs—not public-sector ones, which declined. Count them, and start in 2009, and the economy has lost jobs.
• Castro said Romney would raise taxes on the "middle class." But FactCheck.org points out that Romney has promised not to do so—Democrats are basing the statement on a study that implied he would have to.
• Deval Patrick, Romney's successor as Massachusetts governor, said that by the time Romney left office, the state was 47th in job creation. It was 47th overall during Romney's term, but when Romney left office it was 28th—up from 50th when he was elected—and as PolitiFact notes, this stat, like many Romney stats, exaggerates an executive's influence on the job market.
• One union president said Romney had sought a "government bailout" for "his company." But FactCheck says Romney actually negotiated a "favorable but routine settlement" with bank regulators for a company he used to work at, and that no taxpayer funds were involved.

(More fact checking stories.)