A look at some of the claims made in Friday night's debate between presidential candidates Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain:

POLITICS BLOG: The debate as it unfolded

Economy

The claim: Obama said the financial meltdown on Wall Street was caused by "eight years of failed economic policies promoted by George Bush, supported by Sen. McCain."

The facts: McCain voted against two of the most important parts of President Bush's policy — the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. He supports them now and says that he will keep the tax cuts in place if elected president.

Earmarks

The claim: McCain said Obama "asked for $932 million in earmarked and pork-barrel spending" since becoming a senator in 2005. Obama said earmarks account for $18 billion in federal spending, a small fraction of the federal budget.

The facts: Earmarks are the special-interest spending provisions inserted into spending bills by members of Congress. Obama requested $860.6 million in earmarks for fiscal years 2006 through 2008, according to the non-partisan watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. Like most lawmakers, he successfully obtained a fraction of them: $98.6 million of the $321.8 million he requested in 2008, for example, the group said.

Obama correctly noted he did not make any requests for earmarks for the 2009 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Taxpayers for Common Sense says earmarks in the current fiscal year totaled $18.3 billion. The White House's Office of Management and Budget, which uses a slightly different definition of earmarks, put the total at $16.9 billion. The total amount of federal discretionary spending (not including mandatory spending on entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare) is about $1.2 trillion a year.

Obama's voting record

The claim: McCain said Obama has the most liberal voting record in the Senate.

The facts: Obama was ranked the most liberal senator by the National Journal for 2007. He was ranked 16th out of 100 senators in 2005, his first year in the Senate, and tied for 10th with one other senator in 2006, the magazine's annual analysis shows.

Iraq and Afghanistan wars

The claim: McCain said Obama voted against funding for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama said McCain predicted U.S. forces would be greeted as liberators by Iraqis.

The facts: Obama was one of 14 senators who voted against a $120 billion bill to fund war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in May 2007. Obama said at the time and repeated during the debate that he voted against that funding bill because it did not include a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Obama did vote in favor of other Iraq spending bills. McCain did say that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators — a common view, particularly among Republicans at the time — including in a March 2003 appearance on MSNBC.

Iran Revolutionary Guard

The claim: McCain criticized Obama for opposing a Senate measure calling on the Bush administration to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

The facts: Obama has said, as he did in response to McCain, that he opposed an amendment to a Pentagon authorization bill that called for designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization because the measure may have implied an endorsement of military action against Iran. Both Obama and McCain missed votes last year on that amendment and on the bill containing it, however. Both Obama and McCain were co-sponsors of a separate bill that would have called on the Bush administration to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. The measure also would have tightened U.S. sanctions on Iran and penalties on U.S. firms doing business in Iran through subsidiaries. The bill did not pass, although the House passed a similar measure on Friday.

Diplomatic talks with Iran

The claim: Obama was put on the defensive by McCain for saying the United States should be willing to talk to Iran without preconditions. In response, Obama said former secretary of State Henry Kissinger endorsed his position. McCain said Kissinger did not mean president-to-president talks.

The facts: Kissinger said in a CNN interview that aired Sept. 20: "I am in favor of negotiating with Iran." He said he would do it at a very high level almost immediately. "I actually have preferred doing it at the secretary of State level," he said. As for conditions, he said: "But I do not believe that we can make conditions for the opening of negotiations. We ought, however, to be very clear about the content of negotiations and work it out with other countries and with our own government."

ON THE WEB: Read transcript of Kissinger's remarks

Russia-Georgia conflict

The claim: McCain criticized Obama's response to the conflict last month between Russia and Georgia, saying Obama called for restraint on both sides. McCain said that was "a little bit of naïveté."

The facts: Shortly after the conflict erupted, Obama released a statement condemning the violence. "Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war," the statement said. It went on to say that "Georgia's territorial integrity must be respected." Bush had a similar statement that day; White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called on "all parties, Georgians, South Ossetians and Russians to de-escalate the tension and avoid conflict," and "restart their dialogue."

Taxes

The claim: McCain said Obama "has voted in the United States Senate to increase taxes on people who make as low as $42,000 a year."

The facts: The 2009 budget resolution, a non-binding document that Obama supported, assumes that all of President Bush's tax cuts expire at the end of 2010. That would cause taxes to rise on middle-income taxpayers. However, Obama has said he would continue Bush's tax breaks for those making under $250,000 a year.

Health care

The claim: Obama said he would "make sure that we have a health care system that allows for everyone to have basic coverage."

The facts: Obama says his health care plan would make health insurance available to everyone, not actually cover everyone. His plan would require coverage for all children — but adults could still choose not to have health insurance. FactCheck.org, a non-partisan project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, reported that experts it consulted estimated between 15 million and 26 million people would not buy health coverage under Obama's plan because it does not require them to do so. Total costs of Obama's plan — or McCain's, for that matter — are difficult to determine because many specific details are left out.

Afghanistan

The claim: McCain repeated his charge that Obama has not held any hearings on Afghanistan as chairman of a key Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over Europe and NATO.

The facts: While McCain's charge is true, it's also true that Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, tends to hold the major hearings at the committee level as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, rather than leave that to subcommittees. When the full panel held a hearing on Afghanistan and NATO's role there in January of this year, Obama was at a Democratic debate in California.