The Obama “Gaffe” Pattern

We’ve seen it before with Obama’s comment about Republicans being the “party of ideas” for the last twenty years, with his comment about admiring Reagan, with his refusal to denounce or reject his pastor, Jeremiah Wright. And now we’re seeing it again regarding his comment about rural working class Americans being “bitter” because of their economic lot and choosing to let cultural issues like gun-control and religious affiliation determine which politicians they vote for. So without further ado, here’s the pattern:

(1) In a relatively unscripted moment on the campaign trail (a Delaware newspaper’s editorial staff interview, a small San Francisco fundraiser), Obama says something true but doesn’t say it as well as he might.

(2) The media, the chattering classes and the other candidates recognize the fundamental truth of what Obama has said but think–based on what is considered The Way our political discussion works in this country–that Obama has made A Big Mistake and has offended many people and is in Trouble. They jump all over whatever Obama has said and wonder how he’s going to apologize, make amends and whether he can survive the “gaffe.”

(3) Obama does not apologize except for not fully making himself understood. But he also pushes back by pointing out that those who are attacking him for what he has said are either disingenuous because they know what he is saying is true and now they are attacking him for publicly stating it; or because they somehow cannot see the obvious, but difficult, truths right in front of their noses.

(4) When the media doesn’t get the accepted show of contrition from Obama, some of them do some digging and reveal that Obama’s chief critics, usually the Clintons, but also sometimes, right-wing talk show hosts like Sean Hannity and others, are on record sometime in the recent past pointing out the exact same truth Obama acknowledged in his “gaffe.”

(5) Despite the obviousness of the hypocrisy and craven political gamesmanship of those attacking Obama at this point, they keep it up. And, unfortunately, these attackers may score some slight political points for a short time.

(6) At which point, Obama speaks out on the subject in a very public forum and rectifies his only mistake–that of not speaking carefully about a touchy subject–and finally everyone, including the media, his political opponents, the chattering classes, now begin to talk about the substance of what he brought up, rather than trying to write his political obituary for bringing it up in the first place.

(7) By the end of cycle, Obama has once again moved our national discourse positively forward–by opening a door for another piece of the difficult truth to be considered when we talk about how to perfect our less than perfect union.