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August 21, 2008, 07:37 PM ET
Lessons in Gaffology
Michael Kinsley once offered what is surely the most famous axiom of gaffology: “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth — or more precisely, when he or she accidentally reveals something truthful about what is going on in his or her head.”
Here’s another: The political cost of two gaffes on one subject in five days is huge, especially when compounded by a political convention opening in another five days and offering four nights of oratory to an audience of tens of millions.
Last Saturday night, at Saddleback Church, pastor Rick Warren asked John McCain to “define rich.” McCain’s convoluted response included this sentence: “I think, if you are just talking about income, how about $5 million?”
Five days later, in an interview with politico.com, McCain was asked how many houses he and his wife own. His answer: “I think — I’ll have my staff get to you. It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.” In other words, “I don’t know” or “I do know, and the number is embarrassingly large.”
The first gaffe, by itself, did not amount to much — think of it as an isolated data point. The second, coming on the heels of the first, was not only damaging in itself, but created a line — a political fault line that will extend straight into the rhetoric of every speaker at next week’s Democratic convention.
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