Spot the fallacies

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Original Question

Politician accused of not not communicating with staff while on vacation, lack of emails cited, responds as follows:

“Frankly, if sending emails and phone calls is your measure of effectiveness, we should have a teenager as the premier of Manitoba,” Pallister said at a news conference Wednesday.

Same politician used wifes e mail account to send sensitive govenment documents, when asked by a reporter if his wife is a government employee he takes offense and responds:

“No. Are you questioning my wife’s integrity?” he said. “She doesn’t receive a salary from the taxpayers of Manitoba. She is my principal adviser and confidante in my life and she will remain so.”

Answers

Sensitive govt documents through wifes email, if its not secured and not a valid way of receiveing govt. docs, then his response as to her character seems like a red herring....but I'm guessing. I should take Dr. Bo's lessons....
Not communicating with staff but only citing emails as their grounds for the claim seems like a non sequitur or maybe that's a fallacy of composition, as in emails are one aspect of his ability to communicate.. So since they aren't being used then it must be true that no forms of communication is being utilized.
Its funny though that his response includes lack of phone calls, which wasn't mentioned. So maybe he outed himself and he actually wasn't communicating with his staff. Of course he might have been using smoke signals or sky writing....snail mail? Federal express?....ok that my uneducated shot in the dark...

I should also add that this particular individual is the premier of Manitoba (similar to a US Governor) who habitually vacations up to two months a year in Costa Rica.

He has faced ongoing scrutiny from the media about extended vacations and how it affects his ability to conduct his official duties.

The e mail issue relates to receiving sensitive government documents through his wifes e mail account.

To the teenager analogy I would charge faulty analogy, no one could infer from teenagers inclination to text endlessly that that would imply they are being productive, but I think its reasonable to assume that lack of email activity on the part of a public official could suggest he is not getting much done, for this reason the analogy is questionable.

For the use of the wifes e mail, i would charge red herring on the attempt to divert and then some special pleading thrown in at the end. He is essentially saying he has discretion over what rules he can follow and using his wife as a shield against criticism, I hate when people use shields!

The teenager comment (which is funny) is a reductio ad absurdum and/or reductio ad ridiculum .

By the way, the title of your post reminded me of a Twitter game (@spotthefallacy). If you're on that platform, you can cross-post comments like this and learn/discuss fallacies with others who are interested in the topic (like me).

Frankly, if sending emails and phone calls is your measure of effectiveness, we should have a teenager as the premier of Manitoba

I wouldn't call fallacy on this one. This person is using irony to make a point (that e-mails are phone calls are not as important as some of the other activities... whatever they may be.) I don't think this person is suggesting that a teenager really be elected. We can argue that emails and phone calls are far more important than he is making them out to be, but I still would not see this as fallacious.

"No. Are you questioning my wife’s integrity?” he said. “She doesn’t receive a salary from the taxpayers of Manitoba. She is my principal adviser and confidante in my life and she will remain so.”

Well, he answered the question, which is more we can say about many politicians today :) I don't know how he connected that question to his wife's integrity, however. This might be Jumping to Conclusions .

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