First Example (of American Logical Fallacy)

From: http://redstate.com/blogs/ericka_andersen/2008/may/29/sen_obama_dont_go_if_you_are_not_coming_home_with_the_truth
(Fallacies in parenthesis)

I’m not sure why it took this long for someone to make a big deal of the fact that Barack Obama has only visited Iraq one time over two years ago. (straw man argument) It’s no surprise he has chosen not to meet with Gen. Petraeus, visit our troops or get a personal assessment of the situation on the ground overseas. (Style over substance fallacy) He knows, from seeing other anti-war politicians like Dick Durbin and Hillary Clinton – that it is impossible to deny the progress and positive change when you are faced with it head on. Those two, among others, admitted the truth – that we have done well. (Proof by assertion)

To admit such liberal blasephamy would hamper his purist no-Iraq war image. (Tu quoque ) Perhaps after he’s snagged the nomination for real, it’s a safer bet. But even then, he will look a distant second to John McCain’s seasoned war experience, close relationship with Petraeus and heroic reputation as a war hero. (Appeal to flattery)
What changed America? 9/11. And who does America want in charge when 9/11 strikes again? There is no greater threat to our society. It’s most important right now to have a commander in chief who understands that. (argumentum in terrorem) Barack Obama does not. He cannot. Literally, he cannot. (ad hominum) And he knows that he can’t have any authority on the situation so he caved to McCain’s request to join him in a trip to Iraq. (Wishful thinking ) Well, half caved. There’s no way he’d hop a plane with the one who could pull the presidency from his grasp in a few short months.

He’s going alone. For what purpose? (Subject/Motive Shift) He’s going to “talk to the troops and commanders” but what if they tell him what he doesn’t want to hear? What if they tell him the opposite of his message? A man whose never served in the military and wants to COMMAND our troops in battle having only once stepped foot on their fields? It’s shocking that this could be our reality. (Ipsedixitism)

Do you think he plans on reporting the good news he hears? (Special pleading) Hell no. But I guarantee you now, he WILL hear good news. He will hear that violence is down, that deaths are down, that the democratically elected Iraqi government is finally taking control of themselves, that al-Qaeda exists now in record lows. Do you know why? Because we were there. (No true Scotsman) But Obama’s gone too far to come back now. He can’t backtrack when half of the country is getting off on the delusion he’s created by way of heartsoaring speeches and words of bipartisan rhetoric. He can’t take the dream away now, can he? (petitio principii) Well, he could. But he won’t.

Sen. Obama, don’t go to Iraq if you are not coming back with the truth. Don’t do that to our troops. Don’t do that to the Iraqis. Don’t do that to us. It’s never too late to start doing the right thing. (Hasty generalization) And usually that begins with the truth.