The 'gaffe' redefined, as in 'doing fine'

The LA Times:

Mitt Romney hit back at President Obama's comments Friday morning that the private sector was "doing fine"....

"Is he really that out of touch? I think he's defining what it means to be detached and out of touch with the American people," Romney told supporters gathered in a park in Council Bluffs, Iowa. "Has there ever been an American president who is so far from reality?"

Some will find Obama's admittedly impolitic gaffe an embarrassing item to be hastily explained and preferably shelved, which of course it won't be; Romney will have it bronzed and up on the tube before the day is through, complete with a sonorous narrator sounding woebegotten, deeply concerned and abjectly befuddled. This will depress the introductory "some."

Alas, that's the wrong way to look at it.

How do I see Romney's rank opportunism?

As liberating.

To explain. If Obama had not said, for instance, that he had studied the astronomical matter and decided the moon is made of green cheese, sooner or later Romney would have got around to claiming Obama had said he had studied the matter and decided the moon is made of green cheese. Thus Romney's recidivist distortions actually free Obama to say whatever he likes, since Romney will say he said ... whatever, anyway.

In other words, it's impossible to commit genuine gaffes when one's opponent will always just make them up for you.

Comments

[Robinswing]

Except...Mr. Obama's actual quote is being taken on purpose out of context. As in the ad where they use the President quoting John McCain saying that If we talk about the economy we lose" and making it appear as though Mr. Obama was making the claim. The entire Republican mechanism seems to have been inspired by the Breithart school of intention mis-editing. And of course your last sentence is correct. I would have used fewer words, as in 'they just make shit up".

[japa21]

Of course, tehn Romney, as incompetent as he is, made the follwoing statement:

“He wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”

So apparently, first of all, firemen, policemen and teachers are not Americans. Secondly, they obviously serve no useful purpose in American society in that they provide no help to those that actually are American people.

If the Obama campaign and Dems in general don't make hay with this remark, they should be sued for campaign incompetence.

[japa21]

Sorry for the typos. Not a great typist to begin with, and when I get steamed about something , my typing deteriorates from bad to awful.

[SueMe]

japa21. you are so right about Romney's comment..."lets gut the middle class and those who serve" is the way I take it. When are the 'sheeple' of America going to wake up and discover they are being used by Republican's...big time.

[ronalda]

Well this press conference quote of Obama's is now quoted all over the right - and more than one talking head stated that "this is the day Obama lost the election".

[nk007]

Well said, Japa21. What the hell is wrong with Romney for going after cops, firefighters and teachers? Does Mr. Romney suggest that vulture capitalists, like himself, are more important than teachers and people who put their lives on line as first responders in crisis? If that's the way Mitt Romney feels, then I see no reason why my tax dollars are being used to provide him government protection via SS. Besides, if Romney hates the government so much why is he running for President?

The last time I checked, the President, his
cabinet, and his staff, are all entirely financed by our tax dollars. What's wrong with Americans that they can't see through these hypocritical con men?