distract/detract

[Mark Mandel]

*Is* that a malapropism, or an intransitivization/object-drop?

Mark Mandel

On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 10:52 AM, Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at att.net> wrote:
> /The Nation./ editorial this week, after the neat exhortation ("Lyndon
> Johnson's War on Poverty was lost in the jungles of Vietnam. Â We must
> work to ensure that Obama's investment in America's future isn't
> squandered in the mountains of Afghanistan"), rather spoils the effect
> by going on, "But these questions should not _distract_ from what was
> an eloquent call to mobilize.....&c."
> AM

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