Over the next few nights KOMU will dive into Tuesday night's State of the State and democratic response to try to separate fact from fiction.

Governor Matt Blunt and Attorney General Jay Nixon both used just part of the data to prove their points.

Let's take a look at Governor Blunt's State of the State first.

The governor said Missourians created nearly 90,000 jobs during his term.

So, true or false? This one is true.

U.S. Labor Department statistic show Missouri has 87,900 more jobs now than it did in January 2005. But, Missouri's job growth rate is 3.2 percent for that time period, while the national rate is 4.3 percent.

Now, on to Attorney General Nixon's response. Nixon said Missouri's unemployment rate was among the highest in the nation.

Again, true or false? True - kind of.

It depends on your definition of highest. Missouri ranked 11th highest in November of 2007. The unemployment rate was 5.2 percent.

Last, the attorney general said Missouri was not keeping pace with its border states in creating new jobs.

One more time, true or false? True - again, kind of.

Missouri created about 12,000 new jobs between November of 2006 and November of 2007. That number is lower than that of Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Tennessee and Kentucky. But, it was also higher than the number for Nebraska and Arkansas.

So, as far as unemployment goes, the information the republican and democratic research gathered was basically right on the money. But statistics don't tell the whole story.

Thursday and Friday, we'll be looking at what both men said about health care and education.