[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

I've just come across a great little feature in The Washington Post called "The Fact Checker" by Michael Dobbs. Nearly every day it pins down the candidates on what they're saying and checks in with experts to see if they're telling the truth (there's even a great little Pinocchio graphic with each article). There's some good stuff here, including this recent post that says "The Obama Effect" -- massive increases in turnout, particularly among young voters -- may be more myth than truth.

In the article, the Post turns to a voting data expert that concludes in "The Pinocchio Test" that "Obama is exaggerating his impact on turnout. He can fairly take some of the credit for increased participation, particularly in the early caucus states and South Carolina, where his well-organized ground effort helped mobilize hundreds of thousands of new voters. But Professor McDonald says he has "yet to see any evidence" that the phenomenon will carry over into the general election, even if Obama is the Democratic nominee."

The column is an equal opportunity fact-checker. There's a few that take Senators Clinton and McCain to task too. Check it out.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]