Interesting analysis over on Townhall…
Dean Barnett takes Claire McCaskill’s new ad to task. Not because she ran it, but because it’s rife with the specious logic Democrats have been using for years, namely in regards to what constitutes a Chickenhawk.
Here’s a bit from his article:
The most distasteful aspect of the ad is the way it exploits Michael J. Fox’s physical difficulties. Fox is an actor, and clearly knew what he was doing when he signed up for the spot – no victim points for him for having been manipulated by the McCaskill campaign. The ad’s aim is to make us feel so bad about Fox’s condition that logical debate is therefore precluded. You either agree with Fox, or you sadistically endorse his further suffering as Fox accuses Jim Talent of doing.
This is demagoguery analogous to the pernicious and pathetic chickenhawk argument. The whole “chickenhawk” logic is that only people who have served in the military are entitled to have an opinion on military matters. Thus, the ideas of non-veterans don’t warrant a hearing and thus don’t need rebutting.
While Michael J. Fox (like me) has some skin in the stem cell game that most people don’t, that doesn’t give him any special appreciation of the moral issues involved with embryonic stem cell research. Sick people may want cures and treatments more than the healthy population, but that doesn’t make them/us experts on morality.
The rest of it is highly recommended reading also.
via Hot Air
[tags]dean barnett, michael j. fox, claire mccaskill[/tags]