So Politifact says "The idea that Obama is a Muslim is factual." I emailed them about it--

From Jackpine Radical to Politifact:

"But the idea that Obama is a Muslim is factual."

You have to know that every right-wing bloviator in the Universe will ignore the rest of this article & focus on your one-liner. Thanks for making their work so easy for them.

From Politifact to Jackpine Radical:

Interesting thought. If we’d said “has a factual quality,” better? No one to date, to my knowledge, has interpreted that line from our check in this way.

Jackpine Rdical responds:

First, let me thank you for replying to me. But please let me continue my quibble:

How can you take the statement "the idea that Obama is a Muslim is factual" as meaning anything other than that "Obama is a Muslim?"

If you are trying to say something other than that Obama is a Muslim in this sentence, it's not coming clear to me.

Doesn't the construction "The idea…is factual" mean the same thing as "…is true" (where the ellipsis represents some assertion about the world)?

For example--How would you construe the meaning of the following sentences?:

"The idea that 2+2=4 is factual."

"The idea that Willard Romney is a Mormon is factual."

Update from Politifact:


We check factual claims. In this case, we were explaining that this was a factual claim.

wgs


Me again:

In case you think I'm the only one bemused by your syntax, please see this thread:

(With--you guessed it--a link to this very thread that you are reading.)

Final (I trust) update from Politifact

Do you think my suggested rewording would clarify this sufficiently?

and my reply:

Maybe something like "The claim that Obama is a Muslim can be fact-checked."

And thank you very much for your responsiveness.