Obama, Master Of The Game

Barack Obama demonstrates that he is a master of the increasingly popular liberal retort of "false equivalence" wherein there is only one legitimate position (the liberal one) and all other arguments and/or comparison between policies by opponents are not.

"I think that there is oftentimes the impulse to suggest that if the two parties are disagreeing then they're equally at fault and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. And an equivalence is presented which I think reinforces peoples' cynicism about Washington in general. This is not one of those situations where there's an equivalency."

In other words, the media should ignore his critics because they don't hold legitimate views. 

There is such thing as "false equivalence" but it is most commonly deployed by liberals who don't have any other arguments in a debate. Ask them to explain why and how something is a false equivalency and they usually pack their bags and don't respond or pull out the old standby "if I have to explain it to you, then you are worthy of the conversation".

Comments

[Roch Smith, Jr.]

"In other words, the media should ignore his critics because they don't hold legitimate views."

That's a broad generalization, but the answer is: In some cases, yes.

Here's an current example. A Fox News anchor explains that her coverage of a blog post about the Obama campaign conspiring to do harm to Chelsea Clinton is a matter of Fox anchors working to "present both sides."

Conspiracy theories do not a side make and covering them as if they are one half of "both sides" is, indeed, the very definition of false equivalency. I'm sure you'll agree.

[Spag]

I do agree with that, but that isn't exactly what Obama was referring to. He was talking about elected officials and/or candidates for president, not random citizens making allegations or arguments.

I also recall CBS and Dan Rather with the phony documents about George W. Bush. That was a conspiracy theory, too.