Plausible Deniability

Found a decent read for those interested in the tactics used by those who idolize and worship Ronald Reagan. Sure it's academic and published in 1996, but still salient for understanding the Rovian stratagem executed by W, Rove and Co..

Slice:

This article examines the normative structure of certain distinctive types of arguments that use techniques of plausible deniability to evade fulfillment of legitmate requirements of burden of proof. Understanding how such techniques are used in everyday argumentation is shown to be crucial to ganining insight into how informal fallacies work as effective tactics of deception when two parties reason together...Jamieson (1992, p. 84) cites a technique of "veiled attack" used in recent political campaigns where a "double message" buries a "taboo" proposition in a socially acceptable surface (coded) text of discourse. The goal is to achieve "plausible deniability..."This factor of plausible deniability is very important in helping us to understand how the major informal fallacies actually work as credible tactics of deception in every day argumentation