Ad Hominem
Ad Hominem is an argument that attacks a person’s character rather than what he or she is saying. By attacking the person instead of the claim, the rhetor is seeking to discredit the person’s credibility. If the individual's credibility appears flawed, then their argument becomes far less appealing. It is typically used to make a person look less knowledgeable because of a character attribute or their academic background. An example of an ad hominem attack is as follows: Person one says: "Your foreign policy position doesn't seem like it would work, it's contradictory to the intelligence we have on the region." Person two responds: "You’re a tree hugging pacifist, of course you’d disagree!" Instead of analyzing or attacking the argument itself, the second person retaliates with an insult, attacking the person's
character.The ad hominem is a tactic seen in political campaigns, especially around elections. In 2014, Rick Scott andCharlie Crist became known for these attacks on one another. Headlines read In Florida Governer’s Race, Attacks Overtake Issues. Charlie Crist issued campaign ads that painted Scott as a criminal. By doing this, he was not talking about his plan, or responding to Scott’s arguments, but attacking the credibility of Scott himself. Scott did the same thing to Crist by calling him a “flip-flopper”. This again was not responding to any arguments, just making Crist seem like a bad choice by attacking the credibility.