Red Herring

One of the rhetorical fallacy's is a red herring. So my question is what is a herring? Well I looked it up on my nifty dictionary app on my iPod. I discovered that a herring is a fish that we eat. It is of the Clupeidae family and any fish who is in that family or resembles the herring is called a herring. Honestly I have no idea how this has anything to do with what a red herring is but if nothing else you know what a herring is. See when we say red herring we are referring to something that is meant to distract us from the truth. This misleading cue can be almost anything. Is could be a action from someone that diverts attention or a item that causes people to look somewhere else for the truth. So how could someone recognize a red herring and not be fooled. Well we can always make sure we keep or mind on the matter at hand. If we do that then if we see anything that does not fit the situation that is begging us to move our thoughts else where, then we have most likely stumbled upon a red herring. But honestly if a red herring is done good enough then it will trick almost anyone. A time when most of America witnesses a red herring is during the presidential debate. The people will ask a question about economics and then one of the candidate will talk about how important education is for the children of America. The candidate trys to force people to think about how education is important and how they are good for caring. While others may catch the red herring and wonder why they never answered the question.