“Don’t Tell Me That Democrats Won’t Defend This Country!”

This Sunday, Mr. Safire had a terrific column about straw men.

The column quotes Mr. Obama’s nomination-acceptance braggadocio: “Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country!”

Mr. Safire argues—correctly—that such arguments are misleading:

Who was telling him that? To be sure, his opponents were claiming that a Republican administration would be stronger on defense, but nobody was telling him or the voters that Democrats preferred abject surrender.

Lawyers make straw-man arguments all the time. In fact, I bet Obama learned to do it from being a lawyer.

And don’t tell me that I’m a mindless dullard who doesn’t know what he’s talking about!