The Sarah Palin Gaffe Gap

Since Sarah Palin has been on the national scene, there has been an increase in the amount of attention paid to gaffes committed by politicians.

Much sport was had with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's botched account on how safe the American people are from terrorist attacks when she said "thousands of people (are) working 24/7, 364 to keep the American people safe." News pundits wondered jocularly over the airwaves which day of the year we need to concern ourselves over.

President Barack Obama was on a cross country, barnstorming tour when he told a rally of supporters he had just visited 57 states -- which was more like 57 cities. Much airtime was given to spinning his blunder to suggest the former law professor of a prestigious American university didn't know how many states there are in the US.

Sarah Palin who generally has a tough time accepting responsibility for her own actions, in defense of her
North-Korea-is-an-ally-of-the-US blunder, deflected to the President's "57 states" gaffe and said she knew North Korea was not an ally of the US, but that Obama's gaffe was worse than the one she committed.

Perhaps Palin does know that North Korea is not an American ally. But when she ran for VP, she could not name the three countries that make up the North American continent, thought Africa was a country, and had no idea where the Gaza Strip is located. But even so, its fair to say that Obama's blunder was similar to the kind he usually makes, while Palin's North Korea gaffe was atypical for her.

What is the Typical Sarah Palin Gaffe?

Okay, for an example of a typical Palin gaffe, take the time she was advancing one of her GOP talking points in a news interview regarding Rowe vs. Wade. Palin argued that the issue of abortion was a State's Rights issue and that the Supreme Court often ruled on issues that should be decided by the state. She was then asked to name another such decision by the Court she thought should have been decided by the states. The nominee for vice president drew a blank slate. She was then asked -- what many of her followers would call a "got'cha" question -- if she could name ANY other Supreme Court decisions. Call it what you will, "blunder," "poor performance" or "act of folly," but the VP candidate was unable to name a single Supreme Court case. THAT is a typical Sarah Palin gaffe.

The media landscape is littered with examples of the typical Palin gaffe. In another instance, Palin illustrated to a rally of followers the GOP's reason-things-don't-get-done-in-Washington talking point. She made light of her opponent, Joe Biden's age, and said he was delivering the same speech since SHE was in the second grade. Later Mrs. Palin was asked to reconcile her comment regarding Biden's age and longevity with that of her running mate, John McCain, who was older than Biden and had been in Congress longer. Another got'cha by the "lame stream" media.

Not since Dan Quayle was the GOP VP has the comedy circuit had so much political material to work with. Perhaps, many comics have their favorite Sarah Palin gaffe such as the often cited, I-can-see-Russia-from- my-house,-therefore-I-have-foreign-policy-experience gaffe.

Others favor the 2008 VP televised debate with Biden where she would duck a question by saying she wanted to talk directly to the American people, at which time she ran off several GOP garden variety talking points. Some in the media later called this a clever strategy -- which didn't appear to be because by the second or third time she pulled this dodge, she was just repeating herself.

For me, her most recent gaffes are usually my favorite. Like recently when she attempted to ridicule First Lady Michelle Obama's anti-obesity message to moms across American with the GOP talking point: "Government should get off the backs of individuals and let them decide what's best for themselves." Apparently no one told her the Senate got on board with Michelle and recently passed legislation calling for more nutritional food in schools, with every Republican voting in favor.

This foot-in-mouth faux pas makes Palin waaay out of touch even with her own party, with Mike Huckabee, Palin's dream running mate in 2012, announcing his support for the First Lady's campaign, and the Wall Street Journal suggesting that Palin is perhaps "too simple-minded to comprehend which Obama policies to go after."

By: Trent Carter

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Author, Trent Carter ~ Website: innergnat.com ~ Article source: wp.me/pCuKg-3E