If President Obama's rhetoric is starting to turn off even Ruth Marcus, it might be time to hire some new speechwriters, or get a new logic book:
It's time to retire the false choice.
As a rhetorical device, particularly as a political rhetorical device, the false choice has outlived its usefulness, if it ever had any. The phrase has become a trite substitute for serious thinking. It serves too often to obscure rather than to explain.
President Obama has employed the false-choice device in assessing financial reform, environmental regulation, defense contracting, civil liberties, crime policy, health care, the deployment of troops in Iraq, Native Americans, the space program and, most recently, the situation in Libya.
I reject the false choice of never believing the president or always trusting him. Oh, wait
Comments
Just for the record, are you saying you choose to never believe the president, or do you choose to never believe *this* president?
And no, I don't think there's a third alternative, so this isn't a false alternative fallacy. Just curious.