GaffeFest
QG, I couldn't agree with you more. To truly appreciate a gaffe - or series of gaffes - you have to go to the video:
posted by VermontGuy @ 6:37 AM
Pajama Guy
"You couldn’t have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances [at ‘60 Minutes’] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.”
-Jonathan Klein, former CBS Executive
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6 Comments:
You're talking about two different kinds of gaffes. Palin sounds inarticulate, even when the content of her statement is true. Obama and Biden sound deep and convincing, even when the content of their statement is false.
You need to compare two things:
What fraction of their statements are delivered clearly and articulately? (Obama wins by a landslide, Biden next, McCain and Caroline Kennedy far behind, and Palin far far behind.)
What fraction of their statements are actually correct?
No, putting McCain behind Biden is unfair. When he hasn't been brainwashed by evil Rove-bots into saying things he would have roundly criticized just 8 years before, he's a terrific, articulate speaker. See, e.g. his concession speech.
So in summary both democrats and republicans, in fact anyone who speaks a lot can be found to say things in inarticulate or otherwise wacky ways. The fact that right or left finds this at all telling about the contra is mystifying.
A gaffe is... what is ever perceived by the listening public to be a gaffe. Therefore, politicians who misspeak but are otherwise popular or have a secure base will not be perceived as having made gaffes (Bush's "misunderestimate" and other word play in 2000, Biden, despite being labelled as a gaffe-machine, now though that probably has more to do with Obama). Palin despite appealing to a segment whose other champions had been decisively eliminated, did not elicit the same level of respect and support with the general populace and thus her verbal shortcomings were de facto more gaffe-worthy.
A gaffe is... what is ever perceived by the listening public to be a gaffe.
I largely agree, though there is some merit to arguments that focus on the media's role in playing up one side and playing down the other. In big, obvious error cases, the story takes on a life of its own. (Read my lips, no new taxes; I didn't inhale; Mission Accomplished; etc.) But at the margins, spin matters.
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
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