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Vice President Joe Biden has been in politics a long time. Today's PolitiFact Oregon Roundup includes a claim by Robert Gates, former U.S. defense secretary, that Biden has been on the wrong side of history more often than not. We check it out.

(Charles Dharapak/Associated Press)

In scanning various fact-checking sites around the country, we here at PolitiFact Oregon are struck by the range of topics being examined. It seemed especially appropriate for today's roundup, then, to "go long" in terms of issues being checked.

First up is the new memoir from former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, whose “tell-mostly” book includes some particularly sharp criticism of Vice President Joe Biden. Gates characterizes Biden as someone who is “simply impossible not to like,” but goes on to say the VP has been “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issues over the past four decades.”

A story by PolitiFact writer Steve Contorno didn't try to assess whether Biden has, in fact, "been on the wrong side of history." Rather, it took a look at whether Gates' description of Biden's history was accurate.

Gates said Biden “voted against the aid package for South Vietnam,” that when “the Shah of Iran fell in...in 1979...that that was a step forward for progress toward human rights in Iran,” that he “opposed virtually every element of President Reagan’s defense build-up,”and that he “voted against the first Gulf War.”

The piece concluded, “Gates’ assessments of Biden’s positions on South Vietnamese aid, the Reagan defense build-up and the first Gulf War are accurate. However, we found no solid evidence that Biden actually said the fall of the Shah was a step forward for human rights in Iran.

“Experts will continue to debate whether foreign policy decisions of Gates and Biden will be viewed favorably by historians. But Gates’ portray of Biden’s record was accurate, with the exception of the unproven claim about Biden’s comments on Iran.” Gates’ statement was rated Mostly True.

Next up is President Obama's claim that the U.S. now produces more oil than it imports for the first time in nearly 20 years.

A check with the U.S. Energy Information Administration seemed to back up the claim, as did Kenneth Medlock, an economics professor at Rice University.

Reduced demand due to the recession needs to be considered, Medlock said, as does increased energy efficiency.

Writer Julie Kliegman summed her piece up this way: “Obama said the United States is producing more oil domestically than it’s importing from the rest of the world for the first time in nearly two decades. The claim is on the money. However, a lot of this has been in the works for awhile, including dynamics that pre-date the Obama administration. Experts told us the new dynamic is due to factors like the recession, increased fuel efficiency and ramped up domestic oil production. As a simple statement on where we stand on oil imports vs. imports, though, Obama’s claim is accurate. We rate it True.

Finally, we take a look at a viral Internet meme saying that the U.S. government predicted in 1916 that hemp would soon be dominant for making paper.

A reader in Colorado, where legalized marijuana use is now legal, sent along a graphic saying this: “In 1916, the U.S. government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees would need to be cut down.”

Writer Louis Jacobson’s story found that a U.S. Agriculture Department known as Bulletin 404 – which features a pair of studies published in 1916 that investigate the plausibility of using hemp hurds (a part of the hemp plant) to make paper.

However, Bulletin 404 appears to be silent on the claim being examined. In addition, the dozen experts Jacobson consulted couldn’t come up with any other definitive source.

“As with all claims of this type,” the story concluded, “it’s impossible to prove a negative, so we are willing to re-rate this claim if credible evidence emerges. However, our best efforts have turned up nothing more than a puff of smoke. Since the claim is unsupported, we rate it False.”

Is there some claim you’ve heard recently that could a thorough shaking-out? Let us know and we’ll get right to it.

– Dana Tims