Pic Of The Moment: Incoming! 2016 GOP Contenders Damn Chris Christie With Faint Praise

[MADem]

33. It doesn't matter what I would say. The term is "Damn with FAINT praise," not damn with "feigned"

praise.

You could dig up Alexander Pope and argue the point with him, I suppose, but it doesn't change the fact that the expression uses the word 'faint,' not 'feigned.' A quick trip around the Google will show you that I'm right on this one.

In fact, if one is to parse it out, the praise Christie got most certainly was not "feigned" -- that sort of praise is usually fulsome, but said insincerely (e.g. Isn't that WONderful, said with all due snark)--it is, indeed, faint, as in weak, feeble, not very enthusiastic or boisterous--sort of like your example of "It doesn't suck."

It's one of those not-uncommon errors, along the lines of "for all intensive purposes" instead of the proper "for all intents and purposes."