Candidate Truth Watch

By Kathleen Adams, Harriet Barovick, Daniel Levy, Lina Lofaro, David Spitz, Flora Tartakovsky and Chris Taylor

HONEST, AL Presidential mendacity is not a pretty sight. To nip it in the bud, we at Notebook pledge to keep an eye on the presidential candidates, rating their less than truthful statements from slight exaggeration ([one shovel]) to whopper ([five shovels]). First up: Al Gore

STATEMENT "I was a small-business person, a home builder."

REALITY Nine houses were built by Gore's company. He was also working as a reporter and studying at Vanderbilt University at the time.

RATING [two shovels]

[STATEMENT] "I'm a Vietnam veteran--one of the lucky ones."

[REALITY] Gore spent five months in Vietnam--as an Army reporter. So he was indeed luckier than most.

[RATING] [one shovel]

[STATEMENT] "I lived on a farm...[My father] taught me how to clean out hog waste with a shovel and a hose."

[REALITY] For most of his youth, Gore attended private school in Washington, where his father was a Senator. He spent summers and holidays on his family's farm in Carthage, Tenn.

[RATING] [two shovels]

[STATEMENT] "I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

[REALITY] Gore was an early advocate of the information superhighway. But the Internet was invented in 1969, the year he graduated from college.

[RATING] [four shovels]