AP Blasts Bush's "Straw Man" Tactics

It's a favorite device of Fox News. Start a declaration with the words "Some say..." and it becomes a launching point for trashing your critics...even if those critics said no such thing.

This president is using the same pitiful technique, but the AP is shoving it right back in his failing face and rubbing his nose in it.

Bush Using Straw-Man Arguments in Speeches

"Some look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day," President Bush said recently.

Another time he said, "Some say that if you're Muslim you can't be free."

"There are some really decent people," the president said earlier this year, "who believe that the federal government ought to be the decider of health care ... for all people."

Of course, hardly anyone in mainstream political debate has made such assertions.

When the president starts a sentence with "some say" or offers up what "some in Washington" believe, as he is doing more often these days, a rhetorical retort almost assuredly follows.

The device usually is code for Democrats or other White House opponents. In describing what they advocate, Bush often omits an important nuance or substitutes an extreme stance that bears little resemblance to their actual position.

He typically then says he "strongly disagrees" — conveniently knocking down a straw man of his own making.

Bush routinely is criticized for dressing up events with a too-rosy glow. But experts in political speech say the straw man device, in which the president makes himself appear entirely reasonable by contrast to supposed "critics," is just as problematic.

This story takes him to the woodshed - and only the story emerges unbloodied (and rightfully so). This is an amazing indictment of Bush's inability to deal with reality. Read the whole thing.

Comments

little fuckin late

[bcamarda]

Nice catch. I read it same day as The New York Times' Magazine piece on Jerry Falwell's Liberty University debate team (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/magazine/319debate.html)... led by the President's debate coach.

Here's what I wrote to The Times:

To the Editor:

The day you published your piece on GOP consultant Brett O'Donnell and his Liberty University debate team, the Associated Press reviewed five years of George W. Bush’s dishonest argumentation practices. “In describing what [his opponents] advocate, Bush often omits an important nuance or substitutes an extreme stance that bears little resemblance to their actual position. He typically then says he ‘strongly disagrees’ -- conveniently knocking down a straw man of his own making.” As the President’s debate preparer, O’Donnell got to see Bush’s dishonesty at unusually close range. Your article offers no evidence that it troubles him. It might, however, bother the authority who wrote: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

[Richard Ross]

The king of the "Straw Man" technique is Rush Limbaugh. That gasbag spouts the tactic every day for three straight hours. It's the foundation of his programing. For a primer on the subject just tune in, if you can do it without your head exploding and hurling your last meal.

Richard Ross
Fairfield, CT