How important is factual truth in this presidential election cycle? It seems to me that truth should matter a lot. When we think it doesn’t we’re left voting based on opinion and wishful thinking.

We may find ourselves wishing that the embarrassing allegations about the other guy are true and hoping our candidate can debunk the unflattering finger-pointing directed at him. We hope that our candidate is telling the truth without the spin and that we can actually identify spin when we see it. What we finally hope is that we can sort through the labyrinth to find a semblance of factual integrity. It would be great if we could bring open-minded curiosity and a hunger for truth to our decision-making when we vote.

Looking for truth in the media, particularly on the Internet, is like looking for a gerbil in box of snakes. If you find something that sounds like truth scampering around on a website, just page down and you’ll discover that apparent truth having the life squeezed out of it by the contradictory facts or opinions that follow.

In one example, we found virulent comments about President Barack Obama that went on for pages. “The only thing Obumbler has is lies. He can’t tell the truth and win. Liberals, socialists and progressives are disgusting and evil.” Posts went on to disrespectfully reference the president as Oblamer, Odumbo, Obamunist, Zero, Obozo and the Liar in Chief.

The web controversy in question raged over whether President Obama has the lowest spending record of any recent president, or whether those who take that position have cooked the books.

A web page by GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney recently quoted the candidate as saying, “Since President Obama assumed office three years ago, federal spending has accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history.”

Next we jump to a column on the financial website MarketWatch which contends that the “Obama spending binge never happened.” It contends that data on federal spending over the past 60 years shows an increase of only 1.4 percent per year in raw dollars during the Obama administration, and using inflation-adjusted numbers, shows a decrease of .1 percent.

The next Internet hop takes us to the Obama Truth Team web site, which quotes the MarketWatch article with facts from the Office of Management and Budget that show in the last year under President George W. Bush, federal spending rose by 17.9 percent from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion.

Under Obama, the percentage fell in 2010 by 1.8 percent, rose by 4.3 percent in 2011 and is set to rise 0.7 percent in 2012. Then, it’s predicted to fall 1.3 percent in 2013. The article concludes, “Over Obama’s four budget years, federal spending is on track to rise from $3.52 trillion to $3.58 trillion, an annualized increase of just 0.4 percent.”

Then, take a look at a number of conservative web and blog sites that point out that the 1.4 percent number was arrived at by fully allocating the 2009 Bush-year spending and Wall Street bailout to the Bush administration, even though the Obama administration began just four months later. Obama and the Democrats should be held responsible for not downsizing dramatically, they contend. The 1.4 percent increase was also arrived at by allocating the nearly $150 billion bailout payback during Obama’s tenure.

The Truth Team bounces back with fact checks of the fact checks of the fact checks.

Then, PolitiFact.com draws a conclusion that takes into consideration arguments and calculations from all sides. It concludes that Romney was wrong to say that spending under Obama has “accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history.” It also concludes that the premise that Obama’s spending has risen “slower than any times in nearly 60 years” is half true and counted him as second or third best out of the 10 presidents rated.

Is this where the story ends? Perhaps until the next fact check. And while the evolving versions of “truth” can be hard to follow, the hateful comments are particularly difficult to stomach. In fairness, anti-Republican sites feature hateful comments as well, but many fewer and seldom as creepy as those defaming the President.

It’s tempting to get discouraged by the trash talk and even by the evolving definitions of the “truth”. Just so you know, if you are feeling discombobulated as you wade through the fact checks and comments, you are not alone in your confusion and dismay. Chaos seems the order of the political day. Uncertainty is the tune to which we dance. The trick is to not let this harden your heart or freeze your brain.