Tautologies In Economist

From talk.origins usenet thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.talk.creationism/browse_thread/thread/8e97d1b5c09fca8e/483dca56fad4ee12?lnk=raot

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Lets presume there were a specific thousand athletic races ran over a period of 100 years from America to Europe. Per definition "race" means somebody competing against others reached a pre-determined goal of crossing the finish line first. We want to know for each instance what was the actual reason the athlete won. There could be various reasons: 1) He bribed the stronger athlete to let him win. 2) He had bigger lung capacity than the others. 3) He was using drugs. 4) The others only had one leg each while he had two.

A tautology is a way of formulating the observation so that the actual reason the athlete won in each and every instance can't be independently derived from the tautological formulation. It doesn't tell us anything we don't already know: He won the race. But why did he win the race? Lets presume we have no idea and insist on an answer say from PZ Myers or John Wilkins. They discuss it among themselves as to the actual reason for each and every instance but like everybody else weren't there and have no additional information. Thus they decide to deceitfully formulate an answer that seemingly explains