The Political Blogging

Blogging is not my literary forte by any means. I'm quite a novice to it as a matter of fact seeing as this is my first blog. I can't help but notice, however, that most of the political blogs I visited had no flow in their writing. I couldn't exactly understand what the author's point was when they were writing about different stories. Nevertheless, I did find a fallacy or two in some posts at www.dailykos.com.

One of the fallacies that I noticed was not one pointed out in a presidential candidate's speech, but one made by the author of the blog. The author writes, "Of course this only proves yet again what a dishonorable and dishonest man John McCain is." This is an example of an ad hominem argument. It seems to be challenging what he says or does but really is directed "to the man."

Another fallacy found in the same article is an example of an either-or argument. When summarizing up the article, the author says that there are a number of conclusions one can draw from the information given. "Sarah Palin doesn't know very much about energy, John McCain doesn't know much about Sarah Palin, John McCain and Sarah Palin are both liars..." were the choices given. There is no option that gives McCain or Palin the benefit of the doubt. All choices go against either one of them.

These fallacies were not pointed out by the blogger, however. They were also not spoken by any political candidate but were published by the author of the blog. These fallacies were used as arguments to get the reader's attention and for the reader to side with the blogger. None of the arguments were explained as ad hominem or either-or. The blogger was just using it as a strategy to gain the reader's trust.

This author apparently is not for McCain in the slightest. Most of the articles are slams against the Republican campaign. The blogger of this site also tries to strengthen his/her argument by using dogmatism. "Why would anyone believe anything this campaign says?" is a direct quote from www.dailykos.com. This makes it seem as though there is no argument to be made with the legitimacy of the Republican campaign.

This political blog held several fallacies and flashpoints that the author used to swing reader's interest or vote to the Democrat side. Just about every article contained slams against McCain and his running mate Palin. The arguments were not explained because the author used them for his or her own motives.