John McCain set a new tone for the Republican National Convention Thursday, with speakers abandoning many of the tough words aimed at Barack Obama that had characterized the previous night. But the picture they painted remained one sided.

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Some examples:

JOHN MCCAIN (from advance excerpts): “Again and again, I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.”

THE FACTS: It is certainly true that McCain, with two decades in the Senate, has worked in a bipartisan fashion on a number of issues. Legislation that bears his name often carries the name of a Democrat as well. On campaign finance he worked with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.; on immigration with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; on climate change with Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. Obama, elected in 2004, has a much slimmer record of accomplishment. He did work with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. Unlike McCain, however, Obama did not put himself at odds with his own party leaders by working with Lugar.

U.S. REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN: (Referring to vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin) “We met a woman who, with the bravery that only the mother of five can summon, said ‘thanks but no thanks’ to the good ole’ boy earmarks.”

THE FACTS: Palin has cut back on pork-barrel project requests, but in her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. She did reject plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, but only after Congress had cut off funding for it. And she left in place a $27 million federally funded project to build the approach road to the bridge. Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein, a Democrat, said Thursday that Palin first told Ketchikan officials during a campaign stop in 2006 that she supported it. When she became governor, and after the project became the subject of national ridicule, she pulled the state’s portion of funding.