Gaffe in the Eye of the Beholder

Gaffes are the entertainment portion of political campaigns. A candidate makes an unfortunate statement or a mistake, and then has to spend the next week trying to clean up the mess as the media and late night comedians regurgitate the gaffe in a continuous loop.

At best, the gaffes will make the politician look human. At worst, it can cost an election, for example, President Ford, in a nationally televised debate said, “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford Administration.”

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was double teamed by the media and his Democratic rivals over comments he has made during interviews, televised debates and campaign stops. The media labeled his comments as “gaffes.” His rivals, namely Senator Hillary Clinton from New York, argued that the Senator from Illinois is naïve and inexperienced.

The first so-called gaffe from the Senator from Illinois was in May 2007 when the young Senator stated, “In case you missed it, this week there was a tragedy in Kansas.” He mistakenly said 10,000 people had died in Kansas as a result of a tornado. In reality, only 12 people died. Senator Obama “blamed tiredness for the gaffe… A spokesman later said Mr. Obama meant to say at least 10 instead of 10,000.” Later on in the speech, Mr. Obama acknowledged, “there are going to be times when I get tired… There are going to be times when I get weary. There are going to be times when I make mistakes.”[i] The junior Senator from Illinois underestimated the level of attention his mistakes would attract.

On July 17th, the Senator gave a speech at Planned Parenthood. Senator Obama was talking about a prior campaign smear against him in 2004 by his opponent Alan Keyes. The Republican candidate suggested Mr. Obama favored sex education for children in kindergarten.

The Senator stated he supported “age-appropriate sex education, science-based sex education in the schools.” The Obama campaign used a prior newspaper report from The Daily Herald on October 6, 2004 to clarify his position. Senator Obama “does not support teaching explicit sex education to children in kindergarten.” Furthermore, “the sex education legislation Obama sponsored in the Illinois Senate… envisioned teaching kindergarteners about ‘inappropriate touching.’”[ii]

In fairness, Senator Obama could have said something worse, for example, “Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?” (George W. Bush, Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000).

However, the media focused on “sex education” and “kindergarten” – words that would question the judgment of anyone running for public office who thought sex education for young children would be appropriate.

During the You Tube debate in South Carolina, Senator Obama stated that he would consider meeting with Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Fidel Castro to discuss US relations with North Korea, Venezuela, Iran and Cuba face to face.[iii]

Hillary Clinton immediately jumped on him, saying he was naïve and inexperienced. Media pundits also attached the inexperience label on the Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois. But at least he was able to spontaneously name foreign leaders.

In a foreign policy statement, Senator Obama said “he would order strikes on Al Qaeda targets and withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid if the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, did not blunt a resurging Taliban presence in the country’s tribal areas…

“If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act,” Mr. Obama said, “we will.”[iv]

The media completely misrepresented Senator Obama’s statement, instead reporting that Mr. Obama would invade Pakistan. ABC News, senior national correspondent Jake Tapper – who often finds the need to state the Senator’s full name: Barack Hussein Obama – said “Obama will make extraordinary remarks about what he would do to combat terrorism, going so far as to invade Pakistan.”[v]

Incidentally, during the January 16 2007 edition of Nightline, ABC’s Jake Tapper said, “If three years ago, in January 2004, someone had told you that this man, then an Illinois state legislator named Barack Hussein Obama, was thinking about running for president, you might have thought he was, well, unhinged…. But beyond the excitement among Democrats and some in the media, it's not tough to discern a certain sense of confusion up here on Capitol Hill, fueled, in part, by jealousy and resentment, sure, but the question you hear bears answering: Just who the hell is Barack Obama? And why, in these dangerous times, should he be entrusted with the most powerful job on Earth?”[vi]

ABC's World News Sunday, ABC News correspondent John Berman reported Senator Obama would “be willing to invade Pakistan to fight terrorism.”[vii]

CBS Evening News Capitol Hill correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported, “that during Obama’s speech, he said he would ‘possibly even invade the U.S. ally Pakistan.’”[viii]

An August 2 article about Obama’s speech in the Los Angeles Times “reported” that Senator from Illinois said “the United States should reserve the right to invade the territory of its Pakistani allies and withdraw U.S. financial aid if it believed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was failing to do enough to stop terrorists.”[ix]

The factually challenged newspaper The New York Post, invented a quote in its August 2 edition claiming Senator Obama “warned yesterday that he would use American forces to invade U.S. ally Pakistan if its leaders weren’t doing enough to catch terrorists on their soil.”[x]

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney jumped into the fray saying, “It’s wrong for a person running for the president of the United States to get on TV and say ‘we’re going to go into your country unilaterally.’ Of course America always maintains our options to do whatever we think is in the best interests of America. But we don’t go out and say: ‘Ladies and gentlemen of Germany, if ever there was a problem in your country, and we didn’t think you were doing the right thing, we reserve the right to come in and get them out.’ We don’t say those things. We keep our options quiet.”[xi]

In the case of the Bush Administration, first you wait for disaster to strike, then you express your option to unilaterally invade - Iraq.

During another interview with the Associated Press, Senator Obama talked about the use of nuclear weapons in Afghanistan and Pakistan. At first, he ruled out using nuclear weapons because he was concerned over civilian casualties.

Sensing he made a mistake in discussing the use of nuclear weapons, Senator Obama said, “Let me scratch that. There’s been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That’s not on the table.”[xii]

Again, his rivals pounced and “questioned his foreign policy experience.” Senator Clinton declined to comment on the hypothetical use of nuclear weapons, but the Senator from New York said, “I think that presidents should be very careful at all times in discussing the use or non-use of nuclear weapons. Presidents, since the Cold War, have used nuclear deterrence to keep the peace. And I don’t believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or non-use of nuclear weapons.”[xiii]

Under-whelming second tier Democratic contender Senator Christopher Dodd from Connecticut issued a statement to draw attention to his faltering campaign and slammed Senator Obama. “Over the past several days, Senator Obama’s assertions about foreign and military affairs have been, frankly, confusing and confused. He has made threats he should not make and made unwise categorical statements about military options.”[xiv]

Senator Obama is learning the hard way that statements, no matter how well thought out, no matter how eloquent will somehow or someway will be twisted to look like something else. To counter his critics, he should say, “I think anybody who doesn’t think I’m smart enough to handle the job is underestimating.” (George W. Bush, U.S. News & World Report, April 3, 2000).
But Americans can be forgiving when it comes to mistakes or gaffes on the campaign trail. It helps when the media under reports or ignores the gaffes.

Campaigning in Davenport, Iowa, former New York City Mayor, 9/11 hero and current Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani praised the United States heath care system, arguing that it is better than Europe’s and Canada’s because “it’s private, competitive, and for profit.”[xv]

That statement is almost as entertaining as “People have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room” (George Bush Cleveland, Ohio, July 11, 2007).

Furthermore, America’s Mayor compared the health care industry with purchasing plasma TVs. Mr. Giuliani argued that “if the federal government required all Americans to own a plasma TV and paid for those who could not afford it, lower quality televisions would cost upwards of $15,000 today.” However, thanks to the invisible hand of the free competitive market, “higher quality [TVs are] now available for only $2,000.”[xvi] Sometimes I wonder if the media has a sense of humor.

Mayor Giuliani focuses his presidential campaign on the leadership he provided to New York City in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. However, America’s Mayor is not immune to hyping his own biography. Recently he boasted, “I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers,” Mr. Giuliani said last week in Cincinnati. “I was there working with them. I was there guiding things. I was there bringing people there. But I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I’m one of them.”[xvii]

Giuliani realized he made a mistake, and attempted to explain the statement. He meant to say that he felt their (the workers) pain, and his thoughts were with them everyday.

Unfortunately for the 9/11 hero, with great power comes greater scrutiny and Mayor Giuliani’s public record contradicts his statements. “A complete record of Mr. Giuliani’s exposure to the site is not available for the chaotic six days after the attack, when he was a frequent visitor. But an exhaustively detailed account from his mayoral archive, revised after the events to account for last-minute changes on scheduled stops, does exist for the period of Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001. It shows he was there for a total of 29 hours in those three months, often for short periods or to visit locations adjacent to the rubble. In that same period, many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts.”[xviii]

And how did America’s Mayor spend those 29 hours. “The 29 hours Mr. Giuliani spent at ground zero involved 41 appearances, mostly to give tours to other officials and foreign dignitaries. Many entries include meetings away from the site before the tour. For instance, the schedule included 30 minutes on Nov. 15, 2001, for President Vladimir Putin of Russia, but Mr. Putin’s tour of ground zero was widely reported to have lasted 13 minutes.”[xix] In other words, he was having his picture taken at Ground Zero with famous people.

America’s Mayor Giuliani is not the only presidential candidate who said or did something stupid that was ignored by the media.

Former Governor – of a Northeastern State he is too ashamed to mention (Massachusetts) – Mitt Romney employed great wisdom in having his picture taken with someone who was holding an “Obama is Osama” sign. Later on that same day, a questioner at a town hall meeting jumped on the ex Governor, informed Mr. Romney that comparing a wanted fugitive and mass murder with the Senator from Illinois was wrong. Flustered, Mr. Romney responded by saying we should all lighten up.

In the spirit of jocularity, the former Governor from Massachusetts won’t mind if you call him Mitt Romney Bin Al Shibh.

At a June Republican Presidential debate, the moderator asked Governor Romney if it was a mistake to go to war with Iraq. “Well, the question is kind of a non sequitur, if you will,”[xx] answered Mr. Romney. First, he misused the term “non sequitur.” This should disqualify him outright for the presidency.

But I digress. The Governor said, “If you’re saying, lets turn back the clock and Saddam Hussein had opened up his country to IAEA inspectors and they’d come in and they’d found that there were no weapons of mass destruction – had Saddam Hussein therefore not violated United Nations resolutions – we wouldn’t be in the conflict we’re in. But he didn’t do those things, and we knew what we knew at the point we made the decision to get in.”[xxi] Mr. Romney echoed the Bush Administration argument that Saddam Hussein would not allow weapons inspectors in the country.

In fact, Saddam Hussein had allowed weapons inspectors into Iraq, and as of March 17, 2003 found no evidence of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq. The only reason weapons inspectors were forced to leave was over concerns for their safety because the Bush Administration was about to invade Iraq.[xxii]

The media gave Governor Romney a pass on his gaffe, instead focusing a more “egregious” gaffe from Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who said “Today’s the birthday of Ronald Reagan. We all would believe that Ronald Reagan is the one who ended the Cold War and Ronald Reagan is the one who helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union.”[xxiii] By the way, the reported gaffe was Huckabee not knowing Reagan’s birthday. Reagan’s triumphant victory over the Evil Empire, aka the Soviet Union, is supposed to be a fact.

At a campaign stop in Iowa, Mitt Romney – a big supporter of the “WAR ON TERROR” – spoke about the military and his fives sons and their devotion to America. “The good news is that we have a volunteer army and that’s the way we are going to keep it. My sons are all adults and they’ve made decisions about their careers and they’ve chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I respect their decision in that regard. One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I’d be a great president.”[xxiv] Comedians at gunpoint could not write funnier material.

The difference between Mr. Obama’s so called gaffes, and the Republicans is that in the case of the former, his Democratic rivals and the media hammer the Senator from Illinois whenever he makes a “mistake” reinforcing the notion that he is inexperienced. In contrast, the Republicans do not beat on each other during the debates, and the media under report and ignore their gaffes.

But we should not use gaffes made during a presidential campaign against the candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties. We should judge them on the standard set by our current president who has elevated gaffes into an art form.

“This is what I’m good at. I like meeting people, my fellow citizens, I like interfacing with them.” (George W. Bush, outside Pittsburgh, Sept. 8, 2000). You would almost expect Mr. Bush to also say, “You will be assimilated, resistance is futile.”

“I don’t think we need to be subliminable about the differences between our views on prescription drugs.” (George W. Bush, Orlando, Fla., Sept. 12, 2000). Subliminal: adjective, inadequate to produce a sensation or perception; existing or functioning below the threshold of consciousness. President Bush was correct. He is inadequate to produce a sensation or perception, and he exists and functions below the threshold of consciousness.

“A tax cut is really one of the anecdotes to coming out of an economic illness.” (George W. Bush, The Edge With Paula Zahn, Sept. 18, 2000). I’m sorry, the word you are looking for is antidote – noun, a remedy to counteract the effects of poison, such as your presidency.

“It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas.” (George W. Bush, Beaverton, Ore., Sep. 25, 2000). Import: verb, to bring from a foreign or external source – like an idea.

“I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.” (George W. Bush, Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000). Thank God, or else we would have to fight them over there so that we would not have to fight them over here.

“I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children.” (George W. Bush, second presidential debate, Oct. 11, 2000). This is the sad result when two thoughts collide – racial profiling and education.

“It’s important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It’s not only life of babies, but it’s life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet.” (George W. Bush, Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000). Does the president know the Internet is not an actual place?

“They said, ‘You know, this issue doesn’t seem to resignate with the people.’ And I said, you know something? Whether it resignates or not doesn’t matter to me, because I stand for doing what’s the right thing, and what the right thing is hearing the voices of people who work.” (George W. Bush, Portland, Ore., Oct. 31, 2000). The word you’re looking for is resonate, as in your lack of command of the English language resonates throughout the land.

“They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it’s some kind of federal program.” (George W. Bush, Nov. 2, 2000). Social Security is a federal program, duh!!!

“If you don’t stand for anything, you don’t stand for anything! If you don’t stand for something, you don’t stand for anything!” (George W. Bush, Bellevue Community College, Nov. 2, 2000). President Bush never heard the axiom, “It is better to be silent and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.”

Furthermore, during a Republican debate in 2000, when asked who was his most influential political philosopher, Governor Bush answered, “Jesus.” By the way, J.C.’s critique of Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” is inspiring. Also worth reading is Jesus’ article about Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations.”

In 1999, during a television interview, Governor Bush was asked who were the leaders of Chechnya, Taiwan, India and Pakistan. The best he could come up with was “Lee” for Taiwan.

And don’t forget some of his gaffes as President of the United States. “I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what’s moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves.” (George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003). Probably?!!!

“See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.” (George W. Bush, Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003). Excuse me Mr. President, we have weapons of mass destruction.

Also, Iraq is an imminent threat, and has weapons of mass destruction, or his GI Joe Mission Accomplished photo op in which President Bush said, “my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed”, or “The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th.” (George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., July 12, 2007).

If we did not hold George Bush accountable for the countless gaffes he has entertained us with from the moment he announced his candidacy for president, then why should we start now.

News has become entertainment. It stands to follow we should not be surprised if we elect clowns for political office.


[i] BBC News, “Tired Obama Makes Tornado Gaffe,” (May 9, 2007).
[ii] Media Matters for America, “MSNBC’s Carlson Claimed Obama’s Sex Ed Policy Provides Powerful Fodder to Deride Him,” (July 20, 2007).
[iii] Alexander Cockburn, “How the Democrats Blew It in Only 8 Months,” The Nation, (August 27/September 3, 2007), page 10.
[iv] Jeff Zeleny, “Obama Calls For Military Shift in U.S. Focus on Terrorism,” New York Times (August 2, 2007).
[v] Media Matter for America, “Kurtz Claimed He Didn’t See Anyone Reporting That Obama Wanted to Invade Pakistan, (August 8,2007).
[vi] Media Matters for America, “Tapper’s profile of “Barack Hussein Obama” asked: “Just who the hell is Barack Obama?,” (January 17, 2007).
[vii] Media Matter for America, “Kurtz Claimed… Pakistan,” (August 8, 2007).
[viii] Media Matter for America, “Kurtz Claimed… Pakistan,” (August 8, 2007).
[ix] Media Matter for America, “Kurtz Claimed… Pakistan,” (August 8, 2007).
[x] Media Matter for America, “Kurtz Claimed… Pakistan,” (August 8, 2007).
[xi] Media Matters for America, “MSNBC’s Reid aired “Strangelove” attack, but didn’t note Romney’s agreement with Obama on substance,” (August 7, 2007).
[xii] Michael Luo, “Nuclear Weapons Comment Puts Obama on the Defensive,” NY Times, (August 3, 2007).
[xiii] Michael Luo, “Nuclear Weapons Comment Puts Obama on the Defensive,” NY Times, (August 3, 2007).
[xiv] Michael Luo, “Nuclear Weapons Comment Puts Obama on the Defensive,” NY Times, (August 3, 2007).
[xv] Matt Clark, “Giuliani Cites Energy Independence as Weapon to Fight Terrorists,” IowaPolitics.com, (July 20, 2007).
[xvi] Matt Clark, “Giuliani Cites Energy Independence as Weapon to Fight Terrorists,” IowaPolitics.com, (July 20, 2007).
[xvii] Russ Buettner, “For Giuliani, Ground Zero as Linchpin and Thorn,” NY Times, (August 17, 2007).
[xviii] Russ Buettner, “For Giuliani, Ground Zero as Linchpin and Thorn,” NY Times, (August 17, 2007).
[xix] Russ Buettner, “For Giuliani, Ground Zero as Linchpin and Thorn,” NY Times, (August 17, 2007).
[xx] Media Matters for America, “Ignoring Romney’s Iraq Falsehood, Wash Post Called Huckabee’s Reagan Remark the Gaffe of the Night,” (June 6, 2007).
[xxi] Media Matters for America, “Ignoring Romney’s… Gaffe of the Night,” (June 6, 2007).
[xxii] Media Matters for America, “Ignoring Romney’s… Gaffe of the Night,” (June 6, 2007).
[xxiii] Media Matters for America, “Ignoring Romney’s… Gaffe of the Night,” (June 6, 2007).
[xxiv] Media Matters for America, “The Media Misses Mitt Romney’s You Tube Moment,” (August 13, 2007).