Thanks for your question. This is an errors in reasoning Logical Reasoning question. For all such questions, you have to first ensure that you fully understand the reasoning in the stimulus. So let's start there.
This stimulus consists of an argument. The conclusion is that "the president clearly acted in the best interests of the nation." The only premise offered in support for this conclusion is that "the president made this decision knowing it would be met with fierce opposition at home and widespread disapproval abroad." In other words, the president acted with political courage in making this decision.
Notice that political courage, however, is not at all the same thing as acting in the best interests of the nation. Answer choice (B) is correct for pointing out this error in reasoning.
Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
Samantha-AlexisMay 29, 2019
Answer choice (A) is wrong because the editorial isn't making an argument about whether or not the politician's decision was effective, rather that it was courageous?
RaviMay 29, 2019
@Samantha-Alexis,
Happy to help. Let's look at (A).
(A) says, "it confuses a quality that is merely desirable in a political leader with a quality that is essential to effective political decision-making"
The problem with (A) is that although the stimulus states that the president's action was courageous (which is fair to assume counts as a desirable trait in a president), the stimulus never mentions a second trait at all. Because the argument is only describing a single quality (courage), then there's no way that it can be confusing two different qualities, so this answer choice is out.
Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any other questions!
KathNovember 23, 2019
@Ravi May I ask a question about the "quality"? Is it reasonable to take the "best interest of the nation" and the "nation above partisan" as the quality that is "essential to effective political decision-making"?
jiselyonairaAugust 10, 2020
can someone explain what Wisdom has to do with a motive? I omitted B because I saw it to be "out of scope"
VictoriaAugust 12, 2020
Hi @Kath,
These are not the qualities which are suggested by answer choice (A). The quality is the courage which allowed the president to act in the best interests of the nation despite narrow partisan interests.
The issue with this answer choice is that it does not suggest that this courage is essential to effective political decision-making. The editorialist is merely applauding the courage as a desirable quality in the president.
Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.
VictoriaAugust 12, 2020
Hi @jiselyonaira,
Happy to help!
Your focus should not be on motive here; the editorialist is focused on the president's qualities which allowed them to make this decision, not their motive behind making the decision.
The editorialist concludes that the president acted in the best interests of the nation.
Why? Because the president made the decision despite knowing it would be met with opposition at home and disapproval abroad and this was courageous.
Just because the president was courageous in making this decision, does not mean that it was the best decision for the nation. The editorialist fails to distinguish between the courage required to make the decision and evidence suggesting that it was a good (or wise) decision to make. This flaw is restated by answer choice (B), making it the correct answer.
Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Maxzorn2October 16, 2020
I understand the jump in reasoning made by this argument; however, how can we be certain that "acting in the best interest of the nation" is the same thing as "evidence concerning the wisdom" of making a decision.
Upon first glance, I assumed that by bringing up a discussion of "wisdom" in answer choice (B), the LSAT was presenting a trap answer choice. How can we assume that acting in the best interest of the nation is a "wise" maneuver, despite the stimulus presenting evidence that it was merely courageous.
ROGERIO-CARVALHOMarch 20, 2021
I have eliminated answer choice B for the same reason, I thought that it was a trap, since it talks about wisdom, without ever determining that wisdom is the same as acting in the best interest.
