When somebody feels the need to describe his feelings as genuine, it's a safe bet that they're actually insincere. The alternative would be to assume that he is admitting to habitual insincerity--saying, in effect: Unlike all my other pronouncements, this one is genuine. But that poses a liar's-paradox problem: A candid acknowledgment that one is habitually insincere would be inconsistent with the underlying reality of habitual insincerity.

Thus pure logic dictates that the Washington Post's Greg Sargent was merely posturing...