"Nothing could be further from the truth."

In addition to becoming a hackneyed cliche (a phrase which itself is a "hackneyed cliche"), this sentence doesn't parse, at least to me. What does it mean?

Does it mean that it's possible for nothing to be further from the truth than for something to be? It reminds me of the old proof that a ham sandwich is better than eternal bliss.

Premise 1: Nothing is better than eternal bliss.
Premise 2: A ham sandwich is better than nothing.
Therefore: A ham sandwich is better than eternal bliss. QED

I hereby declare unconditional war on this cliche.

"Make no mistake about it..."

That last one actually does makes sense, but I also want to stomp it out anyway because it's so overused, especially in Washington.

I'm figuring that if we can fully eradicate both phrases, most politicians will be struck dumb(er).

Read it as "No thing could be further from the truth". Or "There does not exist any alternative statement that would contain less truth than the one to which I am referring".

I know that's how we're supposed to interpret it, but it doesn't quite mean that literally, and it's so overused, it needs to be abolished with extreme prejudice.

You want to stamp out a cliche because it's overused? What would be an example of a cliche that isn't overused? They're all "time-honored expressions."

I'm laughing too hard to sit up.

OK, make that "overused by bloviating windbag politicians."

A Colloquiallism that misfired:

Christopher Caldwell of the Weekly Standard
related this exchange between Dick Riordan
and an L.A. supporter.

"We love you, Dick! Don't let anyone make you defensive about your money!"
"I agree!" Riordan replied. "What do you want? Someone to run this city who's a failure?"

My comment on Caldwell's captured momento
has to do with Riordan's apparent lack of education. His quotation illustrates that Riordan graduated from College without having taken a course in Logic. Or if he took the class he may have barely passed missing the section on logical fallacies. The most basic fallacy that
Dick embraced is the Soup server one:
The Soup is served piping hot to a customer who remarks, "This soup is boiling hot!"
The server answers, "What did you want it freezing cold?"
I think the voters in California are just better
educated than Mr. Riordon.
Best,
Nick Brough

Does "Make no mistake about it, nothing could be further from the truth" count as one or two violations of your phrase fatwas (fatwai?)? Or is the usage more of a parabolic function?

The use of either one requires ten hours of classes in rhetoric. Combining them merits a hundred.