How Abe Lincoln called his opponent a liar in a debate

By Tom Quiner

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

[Name of candidate] is lying!

There is something so unseemly about calling someone a liar.

I’m never sure if it helps the person using this pejorative. We have heard the slur hurled by a number of Republican candidates at a number of their opponents. Ted Cruz has been the recipient of quite a few of these accusations, as has Donald Trump, while Marco Rubio has dispensed the term on more than one occasion.

These candidates could take a lesson from Abraham Lincoln. Candidate Abe Lincoln engaged in a series of famous debates with Steven Douglas in 1858. When Douglas pushed the truth beyond recognition, Lincoln sardonically described his mistruth…

“… as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death.”

Take that!