Logic Fallacy Essay

Ahmed Akhtar

The argument in this article is about President Barack Hussein Obama and how he is a complainer, who has blamed his difficulties on others. “He (Brack Obama) had defined himself as a world class whiner even before Rahm Emanuel, a world class flatterer, declared that Obama had dealt masterfully with “the toughest times any president has ever faced.” - quite a claim, considering that before the first president from Illinois was even inaugurated, seven of the then-34 states had seceded. Today’s president from Illinois, a chronic campaigner and incontinent complainer who is uninhibited by considerations of presidential dignity, has blamed his difficulties on: George Bush, Rush Limbaugh, Fox news, The supreme court, a Cincinatti congressman (John Boehner) , Karl Rove, Americans for Prosperity and other "groups with harmless-sounding names" (Hillary Clinton's "vast right-wing conspiracy" redux), "shadowy third-party groups" (they are as shadowy as steam calliopes), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and, finally, the American people. They have deeply disappointed him by being impervious to "facts and science and argument." The conclusion of this argument is that Obama is a world class whiner, a chronic campaigner and an incontinent complainer who is uninhibited by considerations of presidential dignity. The premise is that he has blamed his difficulties on: George Bush, Rush Limbaugh, Fox news… Etc. A second possible premise is that since Obama has dealt with the toughest times that any president has ever faced, he uses this to his advantage to complain and whine.

This article has many fallacies; this specific excerpt presents an ad hominem fallacy as well as a straw man. The article states that Obama is a “world class whiner, a chronic campaigner and an incontinent complainer who is uninhibited by considerations of presidential dignity;” this is clearly a case of verbal abuse against the first person. Therefore, there is an ad-hominem fallacy. Just because the president agrees that he is dealing with the toughest times that any president has ever faced and just because he points out how other entities have added to his difficulties, it still doesn’t mean or prove that he is a world class whiner, a chronic campaigner or an incontinent complainer who is uninhibited by considerations of presidential dignity. It is irrelevant and fallacious that Obama is uninhibited by considerations of presidential dignity just because he complained and blamed others. This paragraph also presents a straw man fallacy. President Obama was only right to blame other people and corporations for their actions, but his argument is distorted to take the blame away from others. Instead of acknowledging that mistakes have been made by others, his argument is distorted and dismissed as complaining and whining; therefore there