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To: PhilCollins; Eric Blair 2084; OB1kNOb; All

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/23/1-out-of-56-is-not-most/

At the GOP debate the other night, Mike Huckabee made an odd claim.

“When our founding fathers put their signatures on the Declaration of Independence, those 56 brave people, most of whom, by the way, were clergymen, they said that we have certain inalienable rights given to us by our creator.”

“Most” of the signers were clergy? Is that true? Actually, no.

Only one of the 56 was an active clergyman, and that was John Witherspoon. Witherspoon was a Presbyterian minister and president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).

A few more of the signers were former clergymen, though it’s a little unclear just how many…. We’d like to give Huckabee every benefit of the doubt, but even if you consider former clergymen among the signers the best you could come up with is four. Out of 56. That’s not “most,” that’s Pants-on-Fire wrong.

It’s a common problem at the Republican debates — why let facts get in the way of a perfectly good soundbite?


38 posted on 10/24/2007 2:47:44 PM PDT by AuntB (" It takes more than walking across the border to be an American." Duncan Hunter)
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To: AuntB
>> At the GOP debate the other night, Mike Huckabee made an odd claim. “When our founding fathers put their signatures on the Declaration of Independence, those 56 brave people, most of whom, by the way, were clergymen, they said that we have certain inalienable rights given to us by our creator.” “Most” of the signers were clergy? Is that true? Actually, no. Only one of the 56 was an active clergyman, and that was John Witherspoon. Witherspoon was a Presbyterian minister and president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). A few more of the signers were former clergymen, though it’s a little unclear just how many…. We’d like to give Huckabee every benefit of the doubt, but even if you consider former clergymen among the signers the best you could come up with is four. Out of 56. That’s not “most,” that’s Pants-on-Fire wrong. <<

Honestly, who cares if he flubbed one statistic? Ann Coulter is extremely sloppy with her research and gets her "facts" wrong on numerous occasions -- claimed Canada supported us in Vietnam (the exact opposite happened) and claimed that no RAT President ever appointed a stealth conservative (wrong, JFK appointee Byron White was considered a liberal and then became center-right AFTER he joined he court). She still has plenty of worshipers on FR despite her credibility being shot.

40 posted on 10/24/2007 3:53:07 PM PDT by BillyBoy (FACT: Governors win. Senators DON'T. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it)
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