One of my bugbears is the "even" rhetorical device.
That’s when you create a straw man by showing that "even" someone across the political divide agrees with you.
It’s facile. Either your arguments make sense, or they don’t — just because Newman and Seinfeld agree that Cosmo is an inapt first name doesn’t mean they’re right.
It’s worse, though, when you pretend the other guy doesn’t always agree with you.
I’m listening now to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Egypt. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the chairman of the panel’s Africa subcommittee, opened by blasting what he said was the Obama administration’s neglect of human rights in its dealings.
He noted that "even" the Washington post editorial page blasted Obama on its China policy.
Please. The Washington Post editorial page is liberal on domestic issues — and is very much a conservative voice on foreign policy, and has been for at least a decade.
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