Political gaffe

A political gaffe is an error in speech made by a politician.

Definition

According to Barack Obama, a gaffe is:

used by the press to describe any maladroit phrase by a candidate that reveals ignorance, carelessness, fuzzy thinking, insensitivity, malice, boorishness, falsehood, or hypocrisy – or is simply deemed to veer sufficiently far from the conventional wisdom to make said candidate vulnerable to attack.

Kinsley gaffe

A Kinsley gaffe occurs when a political gaffe reveals some truth that a politician did not intend to admit. The term comes from journalist Michael Kinsley, who said, "A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth – some obvious truth he isn't supposed to say."

The term political gaffe may be used to describe an inadvertent statement made by a politician, who believes the statement to be true, while having not fully analyzed the consequences of publicly stating it. Another definition is a statement made when the politician privately believes it to be true, realizes the dire consequences of saying it, and yet inadvertently utters it in public. Another definition is a politician's statement of what is on their mind—this may or may not be inadvertent—thereby leading to a ritualized "gaffe dance" between candidates. While exhibiting umbrage or shock, and playing on the mistake, the ostensibly offended candidate must not exhibit anything resembling glee. A propensity to concentrate on so-called "gaffes" in campaigns has been criticized as a journalistic device that can lead to distraction from real issues. The Kinsley gaffe is said to be a species of the general "political gaffe."

Kinsley himself posed the question: "Why should something a politician says by accident automatically be taken as a better sign of his or her real thinking than something he or she says on purpose?"

Psycholinguist Steven Pinker has contended that politicians use vague and indirect language to avoid making concrete statements, and that lazy journalists base political coverage around "gaffe spotting" rather than analysis of political platforms.

The rise of Internet activism has created a new generation of negative campaigning where a political campaign can create attack ads within an hour of a politician making a gaffe.

Notable gaffes by country

Australia

• On August 12, 2013, at a Liberal Party function in Melbourne as part of the 2013 Federal Election campaign, Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, criticising Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, said "No one, however smart, however well-educated, however experienced, is the suppository of all wisdom." The word he meant was "repository".

Azerbaijan

• The Central Election Commission showed Ilham Aliyev to be winning with 72.76% of the vote via the Commission's official smartphone app a day before voting had even started for the 2013 elections.

Canada

• "Air pollution is the smell of money" – Philip Gaglardi.
• Pierre Trudeau and the fuddle duddle incident, 1971
• Jacques Parizeau's 'money and the ethnic vote' speech, 1995
• Peter MacKay calling his ex-girlfriend Belinda Stronach a dog after she joined the opposition party.
• "Evil reptilian kitten eater from another planet" – 2003 Ontario general election

Israel

• On a TV debate with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Isaac Herzog, the leader of the opposition said "I will keep Netanyahu united", instead of I will keep Jerusalem united.

Netherlands

• During a 2009 speech in Mexico City, crown prince Willem-Alexander mistranslated the proverb "A sleeping shrimp gets carried away by the tide" roughly as "A sleeping shrimp gets screwed."

Poland

• Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told reporters on 10 January 2017 that he had established diplomatic relations with "San Escobar", a nonexistent country.

Portugal

• "Everyone will give their best for a poorer country" – Prime Minister José Sócrates.

United Kingdom

• Winston Churchill's election broadcast in the campaign for the 1945 general election in which he suggested that the Labour Party would create "some form of a Gestapo" to implement their reforms.
• John Major calling some of his cabinet ministers bastards.
• Gordon Brown referring to a member of the public as a "bigoted woman" during an election campaign.

United States

• The Gerald Ford Soviet Domination answer.
• The Jimmy Carter "Lust in the Heart" interview
• We begin bombing in five minutes. – A joke by Ronald Reagan in a sound check prior to his weekly radio address that was later leaked.
• "Oh, the vision thing." – George H. W. Bush
• Dan Quayle misspelling "potato" while attending an elementary school spelling bee

George W. Bush was famous for making gaffes

• "You forgot Poland" and numerous others - George W. Bush
• "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American, who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man!" – Joe Biden
• Legitimate rape, Todd Akin, 2012 United States Senate election in Missouri
• Rick Perry's "Oops moment"
• 47% speech by Mitt Romney
• Farmer from Iowa comment, Bruce Braley, United States Senate election in Iowa, 2014
• Joe Biden's remarks that: "No matter how deeply involved you are in the U.S. … there’s only one guarantee ... and that's the state of Israel"
• United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy — favored as successor to Speaker of the House John Boehner — "made Kinsley proud" as he bragged on Fox News's Sean Hannity show that the House GOP Investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack had been effective in eroding Hillary Clinton's popularity, thus implying that the purpose of the investigation had been political.
• Hillary Clinton linking her Wall Street donors to 9/11
• Hillary Clinton Basket of deplorables comment on Trump Supporters.
• John Kasich's response to a question as about why District of Columbia is unrepresented in the United States Congress: i.e., purposefully, so as to disenfranchise as many Democrats as possible.
• Maine governor Paul LePage, in vetoing a bill that would have made Narcan available to save addicts from overdoses, stated that the drug "does not truly save lives; it merely extends them until the next overdose".
• "What is Aleppo?" by Gary Johnson. He later said: "I guess I’m having an Aleppo moment", when he was asked to name a foreign leader whom he admires.
• Donald Trump's statement, "It has not been easy for me... My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars".
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's roll-out of her Green New Deal resolution, which her office pulled from her website and stated that the "wrong version" was uploaded. It called for payments to those "unable or unwilling to work," the phasing out of all air travel, and rebuilding every structure in the United States to comply with new environmental standards.
• Michael Bloomberg's 2008 comments describing how the end of redlining triggered the subprime mortgage crisis and, while speaking to the Aspen Institute in 2015, his description of how stop-and-frisk was used to reduce minority crime.
• During the tenth 2020 Democratic presidential debate immediately prior to that year's South Carolina primary, candidate Michael Bloomberg nearly stated that he "bought" 21 congressional seats that contributed to the Democrats gaining control of the House of Representatives.
• During a political rally, Joe Biden said "poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids"
• During the 2020 United States presidential election, Joe Biden said that he was running for the U.S. Senate,
• In 2020, Joe Biden told Charlamagne tha God during an interview that "if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't Black."

See also

• Bushism, gaffes by former U.S. President George W. Bush
• Covfefe, a word used by U.S. President Donald Trump on Twitter
• Chernomyrdinka, gaffes attributed to former Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin
• Error § Gaffe
• Lukashisms, gaffes of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko
• Public image of Joe Biden § Political gaffes

Further reading

• Amira, Dan (14 June 2012). "A Taxonomy of Gaffes". New York Magazine. New York, NY USA. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
• Chait, Jonathan (14 June 2012). "The Origins of the Gaffe, Politics' Idiot-Maker". New York Magazine. Retrieved 22 June 2012.