My must red of they day is "Four Pinocchios for Obama’s claim that Republicans have ‘filibustered about 500 pieces of legislation’," in the Washington Post:
In addressing a dinner of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Los Angeles, President Obama made a rather striking claim—that Senate Republicans have filibustered 500 "pieces of legislation that would help the middle class." [...]
Indeed, when you go through the numbers, there have just been 133 successful filibusters—meaning a final vote could not take place–since 2007.
But, even if you accept the way Senate Democrats like the frame the issue, the president is still wrong. He referred to "legislation"—and most of these cloture motions concerned judicial and executive branch nominations. In the 113th Congress, for instance, 83 of the 136 cloture motions concerned nominations, not legislation. […]
Obama’s count also includes instances when Republicans were blocked by Democrats through use of the filibuster. In fact, in the biggest oddity, the president reached back to 2007 in making his claim, so he includes two years when he was still a senator. On eight occasions, he voted against ending debate—the very thing he decried in his remarks.
Either the president doesn't understand the way a filibuster works or this figure is a lie that helps the Democrats election strategy.
It's likely that latter.
Democrats are facing an uphill battle in November. Republicans want to focus on the unpopular Affordable Care Act. Democrats want to shift the focus to pocketbook issues—issues such as the minimum wage, where polling says the majority of the public supports the position of Democrats. The DCCC and DSCC have been focusing on those issues and the "far-right," impossible Republicans. All of it is very popular with their base.
Obama was speaking at a DCCC fundraiser. He was trying to appeal to that base, a group that would donate money. His comments were a blatant political lie (or at best a conscious grandiose exaggeration) in order to embolden the Democrats’ election agenda and pick up some donor cash.