Logical Fallacies

[demwing]

The letter "A" precedes the letter "B" in the alphabet. Therefore, "A" causes "B". This is a logical fallacy. I just isn't true.

Similarly, just because a primary challenge often precedes an electoral loss for the sitting President, it does not mean that the challenge causes the loss.

This is a myth created to dampen primary challenges, and uphold the status quo.

It is much more likely that the challenge and the loss are symptoms of the same root cause - a weak candidate.

Weak candidates fail to secure their base.
Weak candidates fail to lead, and offer the electorate nothing to follow.
Weak candidates do not present a compelling vision, message, or reason to vote.
Weak candidates are weak fundraisers.
Weak candidates cannot run on their accomplishments, because their accomplishments are too minimal.
Weak candidates blame others for their weaknesses, and their losses.

Strong candidate do not fear challenges, because none of the above apply.
Strong candidates encourage challenges, because it gives them an opportunity to exercises and display their own strengths.
Strong candidates defeat the policies of their weak challengers, and unify the base.
Strong candidates incorporate the policies of their challengers, own them as their own, and unify the base.
Strong candidates encourage voter involvement, educate voters, and create a stronger citizenry.
Strong candidates win elections.

"A" and "B" may be related, but "A" does not always cause "B"

[Odin2005]

1. K&R

[coti]

2. Good post. This fallacy is called "post hoc, ergo propter hoc." nt

[Rex]

3. A lot of people want to keep the status quo, otherwise they have to

go back to sucking their thumbs at night.

[xchrom]

4. Recommend

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. Yer right as rain.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9758923&mesg_id=9758993

Weak incumbents attract primary challenges. Weak incumbents also tend to lost the g e.

Some of the LOL-ing from Obama ultra-loyalists has the feel of " whistling past the graveyard." You can see it in their LOL-ing and in the fact that the regular invocation of the above fallacy is the fallback argument.

Remember, folks.... we're DEMOCRATS ... loyal to a set of shared principals before we pledge undying allegiance to one flawed candidate with a D after his name.

[demwing]

6. Actually, your post was a part of what influenced mine.

thank you

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. I had an idea. You *perfected* it.

Back at ya'.

K and R, btw.

[demwing]

16. Thanks. Got your message

I'm healing slowly. Next few weeks will be hard, the anniversary is the 14th of next month.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. An excellent summation. K&R

[InkAddict]

8. Weak = less $; strong = more $; I have now seen the corruption of

leadership as they kum-ba-ya around the campfire of greed and one-upmanship regardless of affiliation; where does one go from there to choose when everything falls back to the bottom line of $.

Character is assassinated or purchased;
Crime pays quite handsomely, with little consequence diluted further by time.

[demwing]

9. I don't see large war chests as a sign of strength, unless

your individual donation amount is relatively low.

Then again, I don't see the ability to land corporate donations as successful fundraising, I see it as selling your brand in a lucrative sponsorship deal.

[uppityperson]

11. Correlation does not equal causation. eom

[TheKentuckian]

12. Shush now, you're upsetting the "common wisdom".

[Salviati]

13. A Koan that I first ran across in Dune:

There was a man who sat each day looking out through a narrow vertical opening where a single board had been removed from a tall wooden fence. Each day a wild ass of the desert passed outside the fence and across the narrow opening—first the nose, then the head, the forelegs, the long brown back, the hindlegs, and lastly the tail. One day, the man leaped to his feet with the light of discovery in his eyes and he shouted for all who could hear him: "It is obvious! The nose causes the tail!"
-Stories of the Hidden Wisdom,
from the Oral History of Rakis

[demwing]

14. The Rooster Syndrome

"They give credit to the rooster crowing for the rising of the sun."

[TexasObserver]

15. Correct.

[bemildred]

17. Spot on.

Spreading fear, uncertainty, doubt (FUD) is a strategy of the weak.