On the May 15, 2001 edition of “Meet The Press,” GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich made a number of false or misleading claims that went unchallenged by host David Gregory.

Gingrich told Gregory that, "(he) I helped balance the budget for four straight years.  We did it by cutting taxes and bringing the unemployment rate below 4%."

Did Gingrich (and Gregory) forget about Clinton's tax increase on the wealthy, the one that didn't get a single Republican vote?  In 1993, on the eve of the vote on the Clinton tax package, Gingrich said, "This is the Democrat machine's recession, and each one of them will be held personally accountable."

Now, in 2011, Gingrich says that he decreased taxes, which led to the booming economy?

Gregory quietly moved on to another subject, ignoring Gingrich's blatant lie.

Gingrich Falsely Claims That NYSE Has Moved Its Headquarters To Amsterdam   

“When the New York Stock Exchange puts its headquarters at Amsterdam, Holland and, by the way, follows 40 other companies in the last year…,” Gingrich claimed.

Euronext N.V. is a European stock exchange that is based in Amsterdam.  On April 4, 2007 they merged with the New York Stock Exchange, forming a new entity called NYSE Euronext.  NYSE Euronext is headquartered in New York. 

Euronext is a division of NYSE Euronext and continues to maintain headquarters in Amsterdam while the NYSE, also a division of NYSE Euronext, is based in New York.  A Google entry asking “Is NYSE based in Amsterdam” produces zero information that supports Gingrich’s claim that the New York Stock Exchange has moved its headquarters to Europe.

Once again, Mr. Gregory moved on without questioning Gingrich's veracity. 

Gingrich Touts Texas Employment Numbers With Misleading Stats

Gingrich said, “He (Obama) follows the same destructive political model that destroyed the city of Detroit.  I follow the model that Rick Perry and others have used to create more jobs in Texas. You know, Texas two out of the last four years created more jobs than the other 49 states combined.”

This is a classic case of how statistics can be true and misleading at the same time.  Gingrich doesn't say which years he was referring to but take 2008 for example.  Texas created 221,000 jobs while the nation lost 2.6 million jobs.  Thirteen other states during that period had a net gain of jobs created, meaning that any one of those thirteen states could make the same claim as Texas.  If you were a state that created one net job in 2008, you would have outperformed the other forty-nine states combined.

During 2008, Texas’ unemployment rate went from 4.7% to 5.7% which suggests that the job gains did not keep pace with population growth.

In March of 2011, Texas’ unemployment rate stood at 8.1%, well below the national average of 8.8%.  But twenty-one states had lower unemployment rates, basically putting Texas in the middle of the pack.

Finally, after many public statements that he wouldn't accept any Recovery Act money, Governor Perry quietly acquiesced, accepting enough of the derided “Obama Money” to plug his massive state budget shortfalls.  Without the $6.6 billion of federal money that flowed into Texas, Gingrich’s “Texas Model” would have been, like his upcoming presidential campaign, a miserable failure.

Again, David Gregory moved on to another topic.

Maybe "Meet The Press" has a self-serving interest in Gingrich remaining a "viable" candidate. With Sarah Palin off of everyone's radar screen and Mike Huckabee bowing out of a potential race, Gingrich is the best of the "A-List Nut Jobs."

At least the divisive former Speaker's ability to contradict himself in record time, along with his willingness to make outrageous and bizarre statements, makes for entertaining Sunday morning TV, and, sadly, that's what seems to have become of "Meet The Press."

Why do I think that Tim Russert is rolling in his grave?

*    *    *    * 

By the way, I only watched today's program for ten minutes.  More unchallenged lies likely followed.