{"id":48,"date":"2009-08-31T23:19:46","date_gmt":"2009-09-01T04:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/?p=48"},"modified":"2010-02-24T21:45:59","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T02:45:59","slug":"obamacare-death-of-a-salesman-but-hell-still-be-selling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/?p=48","title":{"rendered":"Obamacare: Death of a salesman.. but he’ll still be selling."},"content":{"rendered":"

Ted Kennedy’s passing marks a great loss to America.\u00a0 And, unfortunately, now it’s time to watch the politics of America overtly abuse his death as a reason that a bad bill should be passed.\u00a0 All because the Senator’s long-term goal was health care reform.<\/p>\n

And, of course, the media now furiously broadcasts the personal involvement Senator Kennedy had with health care reform.\u00a0 While they didn’t say it in their broadcasts, there was an ugly, unspoken undertone in the messages: wouldn’t it be an insult to Senator Ted Kennedy’s life work if the health care reform, which he fought so hard for, would fail to pass.<\/p>\n

Argumentum ad Misericordiam\u00a0 (Argument based on Pity) ..<\/p>\n

This is one of the classic argument traps, and the one you will see used in the media and by the Obama administration over the next several days and weeks. I found this great example of it here<\/a>, reprinted below.<\/p>\n

An Appeal to Pity is a fallacy in which a person substitutes a claim intended to create pity for evidence in an argument. The form of the “argument” is as follows<\/em><\/p>\n