In 1988, Michael Kinsley issued a now-famous definition: “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth — some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.”
Now, almost a quarter century later, we need a new definition for the word. Here’s mine: “A gaffe is a statement that makes a Republican politician look bad.”
Sunday night, on “60 Minutes,” the president of the United States said several gaffe-like things that would instantly become the sole issues under public discussion, would lead to pained panel discussions among chin-scratching analysts on NPR and PBS about tone and comportment and leadership and policy . . . if President Obama were a Republican.
But he’s not, so they’re not gaffes.
Asked if “the events in the Middle East,” the most recent and important and horrifying of which was the slaughter of four Americans (including our ambassador) in Benghazi, had caused him to rethink the “Arab Spring,” the president said these startling words:
“I was pretty certain and continue to be pretty certain that there are going to be bumps in the road. . . I do think that over the long term, we are more likely to get a Middle East and North Africa that is more peaceful, more prosperous and more aligned with our interests.”
Imagine if Mitt Romney had described the murder of US diplomats and former Navy SEALs in what might have been the most horrifying of conditions as akin to “bumps in the road.” Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Imagine if it’d been Paul Ryan. Or George W. Bush during his tenure. Or Sarah Palin. Or just about anybody.
You know what would happen. Democratic senators would emerge breathing fire, demanding an apology. Network newscasts would open with words like: “The political world was shaken today by the response of [NAME] to the murder of four Americans at the hands of terrorists in Libya.” MNSBC’s “Morning Joe” would devote three hours to the horror.
But not when it came to Obama.
Here, as compiled by Mark Halperin of Time, were Monday’s “political leads, all in one place”:
New York Times: “Conservatives Want to ‘Let Ryan Be Ryan’”
Washington Post: “Obama, Romney Leave Some Battle Lines Fuzzy”
Wall Street Journal: “Romney Plans Full Slate in Latest Reboot”
Associated Press: “Why It Matters: Debt”
Politico: “Sheldon Adelson: Inside the Mind of the Mega-Donor”
The Hill: “Jewish Dems Warn Netanyahu”
The phrase “bumps in the road” didn’t appear on the front page of any broadsheet paper, nor on their Web homepages until Mitt Romney began giving interviews Monday afternoon highlighting it.
Hmmm.
Nor was that all from the “60 Minutes” interview. Inadvertently revealing words emerged that would be fodder for every liberal squawker on Twitter — if uttered by George W. Bush.
Obama said his greatest disappointment was his failure to change the tone in Washington, and when asked if he bore responsibility for that, he said, “I think that, you know, as president I bear responsibility for everything, to some degree.”
That’s an astonishing soundbite. First, his greatest disappointment is the tone in Washington, not the tens of millions out of work or underemployed? That would seem pretty insensitive and self-involved . . . if he were a Republican.
More revealing is his denial of responsibility only two words after his acceptance of responsibility — through the use of the phrase “to some degree.”
Imagine Jon Stewart ripping Bush: The buck stops here — to some degree. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country — to some degree.
Not now. Now we’re a week removed from Mitt Romney’s undeniably damaging gaffe about 47 percent of the people not voting for him, and we’re still talking about it.
You’d think the lockstep media would enjoy having a couple of new gaffes to feed upon — but that would presume they have a role other than the one they’ve implicitly assigned to themselves, which is to get Obama re-elected.
Not so long ago, gaffes were fairly evenly distributed politically. In 1976, Republican Gerald Ford said something stupid about Eastern Europe; in 1980, Democrat Jimmy Carter said something stupid about his daughter Amy and nuclear weapons; in 1984, Democrat Walter Mondale said he’d raise your taxes.
In 1992, the Republican George Bush read his cue-card instructions aloud: “Message: I Care.” In 2004, the gaffemeister was Democrat John Kerry, whose “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it” became an instant classic.
Not so 2008 or 2012. Barack Obama’s gaffes — as when he said “you didn’t build that”— are usually subjected not to scornful analysis by his toadies in the press corps but rather to exculpatory grammatical excavation.
A frustrated liberal media used the word “Teflon” to describe their inability to make gaffes and misstatements stick to Ronald Reagan. Barack Obama doesn’t need Teflon.
He’s saved by the new rule of gaffes rigorously applied by the media: Democrats don’t make them.