Big Fat Story
Castration quip fuels Fox ratings
It was arguably the mother of this election season’s gaffes. Jesse Jackson, unaware he’s being recorded on the set of Fox & Friends, whispers to Reid Tuckson the he wanted to cut Obama’s “nuts out” (not off, as most people think) for “talking down to black people.” Fox held onto the footage for a few days, then aired it July 9th on The O’Reilly Factor. At first, people wondered whether Jackson’s remarks might highlight a disconnect between Obama and African-Americans. But the condemnation of Jackson on African-American talk radio and blogs was swift. “Messy Jesse is throwin back that haterade like a champ,” wrote Bossip.com under the headline “Divide and Conquer.” Jackson was redeemed when a poignant photo caught him crying during Obama’s victory speech in Chicago.
Injects the race issue, but misses the vein.
It was May of 2008, and Hillary, who’d just barely won the Indiana primary, was getting desperate. Her campaign began dialing up the message that Barack could never with a general election. On May 6, Clinton supporter Paul Begala told Donna Brazile on CNN that the Democrats can’t win with only “African-Americans and eggheads” behind them, and suggested that what Obama had to offer was a “Dukakis coalition.” But that paled in comparison to the quote Hillary herself dropped to USA Today on May 7:
I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on… Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.
But can she stand eyeball-to-eyeball with Putin?
The country might have forgiven her for not knowing what Charlie Gibson meant when he asked her about the Bush Doctrine. (He did come off as a bit like a mean high school principal when he asked that, didn’t he?) But then came the now-infamous one-on-one with Katie Couric, a journalist not known for ambushing interviewees. That segment was broadcast on September 25, and featured this gem from Palin about how living in Alaska bolsters her foreign policy experience:
It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska... It is from Alaska that we make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia.
The Biggest Political Gaffes of 2008
The most media-saturated election in history amplified every campaign trail blooper– and there were plenty. Surprisingly, only some of them involved Joe Biden. From Sarah Palin’s stumbles to John McCain’s loss for words, here are six videos of our favorite political gaffes of the year.
It’s hard to find one when you really need one.
There’s no shortage of choices when it comes to selecting a top McCain gaffe. Is it the time he jabbed a finger at Obama and called him “that one” during the debates? Is it the “bomb Iran” song? The failure to recall the former secretaries of state who endorsed him? Or perhaps when he referred to Iranian extremists as Al Qaeda terrorists? This one was our personal favorite: At a large Ohio rally on October 30, not long after he’d made Joe the Plumber a household name, John McCain called out to the famous Joe to get the crowd going. It didn’t work, because Joe the Plumber wasn’t there. And he soon wouldn’t be there for McCain in many senses – soon after that rally, Joe was publicly comparing Obama to Sammy Davis, Jr., and agreeing that a vote for Obama was a vote for the “death of Israel.”
Rule of thumb: Don’t compare guns and religion to security blankies.
Obama probably would have lost the Pennsylvania primary anyway -- he was seven points behind Hillary by the time it rolled around – but any hopes for closing the gap were pretty much demolished on April 6. That’s when he let loose this comment about rural voters at a San Francisco fundraiser:
It's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Two weeks later, he lost the primary by nine.
It’s a four-way tie.
We like Joe Biden’s gaffery, and not just because it means there will be, thank goodness, someone funny in the White House for the next four years. Not long ago it seemed like nothing Biden could do would redeem him for plagiarizing Neil Kinnock. But 21 years later, the vice-president-elect’s gift of gaffe – we’ve included four of his best here – has made seem like a good-natured, absent-minded neighbor rather than a slick politician.
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I've never understood the amusement at the Russia comment by Governor Palin. Russia is right across a very narrow bit of the Bering Strait separating it from Alaska, and it's not a stretch to believe that sometime during her Governorship, she might have to call out the Guard if they are not already there to protect Alaska and the US from the Russians via a boat or air attack. What a convenient place for them to attack America. The press is very willing to talk about how dangerous Russia is getting especially as regards the US but when a beautiful Governor - and that is in every other state an oxymoron - shares her concerns and views, she is looked upon as a dumkof. That's fairness for you.
Damn, I had already completely forgotten Joe the Plumber. Why'd you have to remind us that he existed. It's like messing with the natural course of things.
Why isn't nominating McCain on this list of gaffes? The only dumber thing the Stupid Party has done in modern times is nominate Bob Dole. Whatever honor old buffers may have earned in long-ago wars, let's find other ways to pay tribute than set them up for sure failure.
1. If the Russians were to invade Alaska, our federal military installations in the area (Air Force, Army) would be the first to know and respond, not the Alaska National Guard. Palin isn't anywhere on the chain of command giving the Army or AF orders on how to respond.
2. I guess the Russians could invade Alaska if they really wanted to, instead of launching missiles at us. But this is not a realistic threat we believe to exist in the real world. The absurdity of the scenario she describes to try and paint herself as someone with a national security/foreign policy role to play is compounded by the hilarious image of Vladimir Putin's gigantic head rearing itself over Alaskan airspace, as it swoops down through British Columbia and lands in downtown Seattle.
Thank you.
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