{"id":11204,"date":"2012-03-27T05:45:45","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T09:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=11204"},"modified":"2012-03-27T05:45:45","modified_gmt":"2012-03-27T09:45:45","slug":"which-gaffes-stick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/which-gaffes-stick\/","title":{"rendered":"Which gaffes stick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When a politician makes a mistake, sometimes it gets turned into a disqualification.\u00a0 Sometimes it gets ignored.\u00a0\u00a0 Chris Cillizza explains which ones stick and which ones don\u2019t:<\/p>\n

Gaffes that matter are those that speak to a larger narrative about a candidate or a doubt\/worry that voters already have about that particular candidate.<\/p>\n

Take the gaffe du jour \u2014 Mitt Romney aide Erik Fehrnstrom\u2019s reference to an Etch-a-Sketch when asked whether the former Massachusetts governor\u2019s move to the ideological right in the primary would hurt him with general election voters.<\/p>\n

The Etch-a-Sketch incident is likely to linger in the electorate because it speaks to a broader storyline already bouncing around the political world: That Romney lacks any core convictions and that he will say and do whatever it takes to win. (It IS worth noting that Romney didn\u2019t say the Etch-a-Sketch line \u2014 making it less powerful and perhaps less long lasting.). . .<\/p>\n

\nTo that point, the Democratic National Committee released their second Etch-a-Sketch web video in as many days:\n

Contrast Fehnstrom\u2019s gaffe with President Obama\u2019s slip-up in May 2008 when he told a crowd in Oregon: \u201cOver the last 15 months, we\u2019ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I\u2019ve now been in 57 states?\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservatives insisted that the reason that gaffe didn\u2019t get enough attention was because of the media\u2019s favoritism directed toward Obama. But, the truth is that the \u201c57 states\u201d comment didn\u2019t become a defining moment in the 2008 campaign because there was no \u201cObama isn\u2019t smart enough to be president\u201d narrative out there. Democrats, independents and even many Republicans agreed that Obama had the intellectual goods to be president although there was considerable disagreement about whether his policies were the right fit for the country.<\/p>\n

While Obama\u2019s \u201c57 states\u201d gaffe never caught on, his comments about rural voters \u201cclinging\u201d to their religion and their guns \u2014 made at a fundraising event in California \u2014 became a huge problem for his campaign. Why? Because there was an \u201cObama as elitist\u201d narrative already in the political bloodstream that his \u201ccling\u201d comments played directly into.<\/p>\n

Recent (and even not-so-recent) political campaigns are filled with gaffes that prove our point.<\/p>\n

* Massachusetts Sen John Kerry\u2019s order of swiss cheese on his cheesesteak mattered because he was already fighting against the idea that he was out of touch with average Americans.<\/p>\n

* Rick Perry\u2019s \u201coops\u201d moment mattered because from the second the Texas governor announced his 2012 candidacy for president there were questions about whether or not he was up to the task.<\/p>\n

* George H.W. Bush looking at his watch during a presidential debate in the 1992 campaign mattered because there was a already a sense in the electorate that the incumbent president was aloof and uncaring.<\/p>\n

* Edmund Muskie\u2019s tearing up in New Hampshire during the 1972 presidential campaign mattered because it reinforced the idea kicking around in political circles that he was emotionally unstable and prone to burst of temper.<\/p>\n

via The Etch-a-Sketch incident and the art of the political gaffe \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the \u201cnarratives\u201d have to come from somewhere, usually from things candidates do and say, including other gaffes.\u00a0 What turns a gaffe into a narrative, which then shapes which other gaffes are meaningful, seems to be a different process, with political spinners playing a big role.<\/p>\n

And along this line, what do you think about President Obama\u2019s latest gaffe, in which he gets caught on an open microphone <\/a>telling the president of Russia to give him \u201cspace\u201d until he is re-elected, whereupon he will be able to be more \u201cflexible\u201d in presumably giving the Russians what they want on a missile defense agreement.\u00a0 Will that one stick?\u00a0 Should it?<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a politician makes a mistake, sometimes it gets turned into a disqualification.\u00a0 Sometimes it gets ignored.\u00a0\u00a0 Chris Cillizza explains which ones stick and which ones don\u2019t: Gaffes that matter are those that speak to a larger narrative about a candidate or a doubt\/worry that voters already have about that particular candidate. Take the gaffe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[65,1473,1747,1787],"class_list":["post-11204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-2012-presidential-election","tag-mitt-romney","tag-political-rhetoric","tag-president-barack-obama"],"yoast_head":"\nWhich gaffes stick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When a politician makes a mistake, sometimes it gets turned into a disqualification.\u00a0 Sometimes it gets ignored.\u00a0\u00a0 Chris Cillizza explains which ones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/which-gaffes-stick\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Which gaffes stick\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When a politician makes a mistake, sometimes it gets turned into a disqualification.\u00a0 Sometimes it gets ignored.\u00a0\u00a0 Chris Cillizza explains which ones\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/which-gaffes-stick\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-27T09:45:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/which-gaffes-stick\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/which-gaffes-stick\/\",\"name\":\"Which gaffes stick\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-27T09:45:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-03-27T09:45:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"When a politician makes a mistake, sometimes it gets turned into a disqualification.\u00a0 Sometimes it gets ignored.\u00a0\u00a0 Chris Cillizza explains which ones\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/which-gaffes-stick\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/which-gaffes-stick\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/which-gaffes-stick\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Which gaffes stick\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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