Campaign Finale: A Perfect Storm of Frankenfacts

And now, to conclude, a few parting misstatements.Come Wednesday, or sometime later if the election result is still in the balance, only one man will be left standing and the loser's inventory of misleading claims, out-of-context assertions and warped-reality advertising will fade into some inglorious corner of history. But we're not quite done with them yet.

In campaign speeches that serve as closing arguments, President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney are still at it. Romney is still misrepresenting the impact of Obama's health care law on your wallet. Obama is still masking the sticker shock of his plan to tax the rich.

Call it a perfect storm of Frankenfacts. Here's a sampling of the claims coming from the stump and the airwaves in the campaign's 11th-hour tempest:

OBAMA in Green Bay, Wis., on Thursday:

"It's time to use the savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to start paying down our debts here and rebuilding America. Right now, we can put people back to work fixing up roads and bridges. Right now, we can expand broadband into rural neighborhoods and make sure our schools are state of the art."

THE FACTS:

If saying things over and over could make them true, this would be true.

But it's not. This claim is the kudzu of the Obama campaign, the weed that regrows no matter how many times it's whacked.

The wars were financed mostly with borrowing, so ending them does not free a pile of cash for anything else. "Rebuilding America" with war savings merely means continuing to borrow and pile up debt, but for purposes other than war.

ROMNEY campaign ad:

"Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China. Mitt Romney will fight for every American job."

THE FACTS:

You wouldn't know from this audacious account of the auto-industry crisis that:

• It's over.
• Romney also counseled bankruptcy for the automakers, but without the government bailout that represented its only realistic chance of succeeding.
• Chrysler says the possibility of making some of its Jeeps in China does not threaten Jeep production in the U.S.
• Romney wrongly predicted during the crisis that if the companies got a government bailout, "You can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye." Both companies have returned to profitability. 

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49662160