carlson-clunkerWhat kind of “crack research” is Fox’s Gretchen Carlson smoking? The Fox & Friends co-host and former Miss Minnesota claimed today that after spending “a tremendous amount of time” researching the issue, she found that only two cash-for-clunkers deals have been consummated in her home state. The widely reported stat: two percent of pending deals have been approved.

Based on the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association numbers, federal funding has so far helped car owners replace 150 inefficient old cars, not two. That’s 2 percent of the 7,500 consumers who have signed on to participate in the program.

Carlson has a habit of drawing dubiously on her Minnesota roots — for example, citing her childhood experience of Christmas to advocate that free speech be suspended on that day, and claiming “the last time I checked, [former U.S. Sen.] Norm Coleman won the election after election night.”

Here’s today’s Fox News video clip:

CARLSON: By the way, I did my own crack research yesterday, spent a tremendous amount of time on this yesterday finding out information. In my home state of Minnesota, so far only two of these deals have actually been approved –

CO-HOST STEVE DOOCY: That’s all?

CARLSON: — by the government.

DOOCY: Wow.

CARLSON: Two in the entire state of Minnesota. And then you wonder about whether or not these dealers feel like they’re going to get their money from the government. Not so sure.