I think this statement is a masterful piece of work.  The president and his speechwriters know that of the two items mentioned in that sentence, the gay marriage thing is going to resonate more strongly with the average joe six pack than the corruption.  It was the last item mentioned and it inflames peoples passions more.  Now, if the dems could learn to do the same thing!

I think I would rather try to improve the education level in the USA to the point where people's critical thinking skills are sharp enough to pick up on word games like that sentence in bold. That would seem to be better than adapting sleazy, unethical, Orwellian word games to con people.

As this post has done we need to constantly point out this con game that the Republican wordsmiths are using, and we need to demand the media point out these logical fallacies immediately. If the MSM would spend as much energy on that as they did on sabatoging Howard Dean with the "Dean Scream" we could make some inroads.

I keep thinking that the Dems need to steal this fear-mongering technique, but I can't think of any good hooks; the R's have all the bases covered: gay-marriage, gun rights, taking religion out of schools and public institutions, abortion, porn, racism, xenophobia, lack of patriotism, flag-burning, higher taxes...

I can't come up with anything that they aren't already accusing the Democrats of to use against them!

Quick point - it doesn't work without the complicity of the media. If the media would mock or even simply point out the illogicality of the statement it loses its effect. The problem is the media, not that Dems aren't creative enough about coming up with this stuff. People who attribute to Bush and the GOP machine out of native creativity all the power that flows to them from media tilt are grossly misstating the actual state of affairs.

Mark

I was about to post about Bush's ingenious equation of Gay Marriage and the Abramoff Scandal.  This is a technique that Bush and Republicans do with relative degrees of subtly and skill.  

Democrats should vigorously, it would be nice if they do anything with vigor, is not allow the two issues to be linked.  It is possible to say that whatever one thinks about Gay Marriage and who should decide the issue it has nothing to do with Republicans taking and soliciting brides that corrupt all government.

I think the immediate way to address this is to start creating grassroots media policing groups and make it easy for people to flood outlets with angry, yet effectively crafted messages to counter bias. I am starting to work on this in the Bay Area - if people are aware of anyone doing this already, especially in my area here, I would appreciate getting information about that.

Go Mark. The sentence was sneaky and appalling; lies, damn lies, and faulty parallel constructions.

The only good news: few people pay much attention to the state of the union speech.

EJ

Instead we get "we're so bipartisan in Virginia, you can't tell us apart" from Tim Kaine as the Dem spokesmodel.

Dude, is that who that was, I thought it was the "Romulin ambasidore" from Star trek: Deep Space Nine, what was up with the eye brow?

Until there exists a media outlet as pervasive and accessible as FOX that offers a different viewpoint, the battle is lost, I'm afraid.

Bush is doing a great job of wasting money and lives in Iraq, while doing a piss-poor job of improving security in the US. See the 9/11 commission Report.

Another brilliant comment, right to the point of nothing. Keep it up - the GOP might nominate you for President.

While you're at it, try to point out "hypocrisy" also.

How long can "the grownups" keep blaming others for everything that goes wrong, and take credit for what little goes right?

Most Republican politicians are really, really awful - see today's budget vote. Most Dem politicians are anywhere from really awful to pretty good.

You almost had me contemplating a prty switch, if you had said Republicans are really, really, really awful- you may have had me...of if the Democrats were swell, that might have done it too. With learned political insight like that I can see how you wouldn't have the time to consider your own duplicity.