Since the term “straw-man argument” is played out like a gheri curl, I propose a new term a friend of mine is fond of using for the leveling of an argument towards an allegedly widely held notion that is both not widely held and easily dispatched: shadowboxing. Today’s shadowboxing champion is Nick Charles at The Root:
Allow me to apologize up-front for not drinking the Obama-aid. I like the reed-thin, caramel-colored, left-handed-jump-shot-having senator from Illinois and will probably vote for him, especially given the alternative. But I have had it with the Obama minions who decry any criticism, even policy-based, of him or his campaign. I don’t buy that “anything off-message is giving aid and comfort to the enemy” tactic.
What “policy-based” example is Mr. Charles using to compare Bush’s various obfuscations of government behavior including torture, wiretapping, secret prisons, and medical mismanagement at veterans hospitals–that, if smacked down, only proves that the legions of Obamabots ready to destroy any criticism of the Senator are real?
The Obama campaign’s smackdown of Ludacris and his dismissal of activists who heckled him for not paying enough attention to black issues.
My suspicions about the campaign were confirmed recently with the fulminations over Chris “Ludacris” Bridges’ new song, “Politics as Usual,” that took swipes at Hillary Clinton, John McCain and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. I grew more wary after the back and forth at a recent Obama town hall in Tampa, Fla. between the candidate and a group of self-styled black revolutionaries, who heckled Obama for not talking enough about black issues.
That’s right, Obama disavowing Ludacris’ song trashing an opponent whose voters he is agressively courting and politely disagreeing with hecklers is pretty much the same thing Bush Administration waging extensive media campaigns to discredit their critics or rivals and equate them with traitors. Does Mr. Charles know what happens to people who show up at Bush and now McCain campaign events and come out their face?
Shadowboxing.
— A. Serwer
