Reply #13: No, Pete, THIS Dean supporter suggests you can't pry them [View All]

[Eloriel]

apart and try to make the first something it's not. As I've said several times. Well, you can try, but you look foolish doing so.

"Turns out we've got more than one Republican in the Democratic race," Dr. Dean told reporters on his campaign bus. "I've always said I thought Wes Clark was a Republican. Now apparently John Kerry has the same financing habits." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/01/politics/campaign/01TRAI.html?ex=107 ...

To my amazement, many Dean supporters claimed that only the second sentence was operative in his attack on Kerry, i.e. Dean didn't say that Kerry was a Republican, just that he had the same financing habits.

The first sentence is hyperbole (a figure of speech), a FACT which is borne out by two things -- one, the fact that it is obviously and completely and inarguable not technically or factually true, and second, because the second sentence provides the CONTEXT which shows that the obviously factually inaccurate first sentence is meant as hyperbole.

It's NOT that the second sentence is the only "operatble" sentence, but that the first sentence cannot be judged independently -- not if you're being intellectually honest about it. Taking a sentence out of context on purpose is a prime example of intellectual dishonesty.

Here's an example. If you asked me my opinion of Zell Miller and I responded, "Ugh, he's a Republican," would you accuse me of being a liar? I would hope your mental processes wouldn't demand that kind of literal exchange. As a fellow Democrat who knows that Zell Miller still calls himself a Democrat, I'm feel certain you'd recognize my response as hyperbole -- an exaggeration for effect, one that still gets across the message.

I really am having trouble understanding why you're having trouble with this. Except to try to make to make it into something it's not. I just don't think it helps your candidate, frankly.