A: The senator said that his opponent was quite competent for someone so inexperienced.

B: Not surprising at all. You hear nothing but left-handed compliments in these debates.

Note: Also called a backhanded compliment, this idioim refers to an insult in the guise of an expression of praise. This expression uses “left-handed” in the sense of “questionable or doubtful,” a usage dating from about 1600. Left has negative connotations and right positive ones. Your most trusted friend is your “right-hand” man but if he is a terrible dancer he would be described as “having two left feet.”