Properly speaking, a “dilemma” is a logical situation, not a practical one.
When Hank Paulson had to decide between betraying his ideology with a bailout and risking the collapse of the financial markets by letting Lehman Brothers go down, that wasn’t a dilemma: that was just a tough choice.
A dilemma is a situation in which one of two propositions must be true, and either one wrecks your argument.
For example:
Either the nasty stuff about Sarah Palin the McCainiacs are leaking to the press is true, or it is false.
If it’s false, McCain chose a bunch of backstabbing liars to run his campaign.
If it’s true, he chose a greedy, ill-tempered, ignorant vulgarian to be the President of the United States in case of his death or disability.
In either case, McCain wasn’t fit to be President.
