I’m not much of a strict nitpicker who considers any gaffe by a political campaign to be a huge black mark against them, but I am easily amused. So even though I don’t consider these really much of an issue politically, I was just too amused by two gaffes made by the McCain-Palin campaign that I just need to mention them.
The first is a speech by McCain in Pennsylvania, where McCain tries to pander to the audience by contrasting himself with Obama’s supporters, but instead ends up with a rather awkward moment as he misspeaks:
I think you may have noticed that Senator Obama’s supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about western Pennsylvania lately. … And you know? I couldn’t agree with them more. …
Like the phone conversation where McCain supposedly rejects Spain which I think was a miscommunication resulting from a garbled phone conversation, I interpret his remarks as a slip of the tongue that is meaningless politically. But it’s hard not to find it amusing. However, I’d be mighty annoyed yet again if the McCain campaign tries mind-blowing contortions to make things look like McCain said exactly what he meant to say but that everyone else misinterpreted him.
The second gaffe is the news about Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe While I completely understand the McCain-Palin campaign’s need to make Palin and her family look sharp for the cameras, I can’t help but feel a bit of cognitive dissonance with their effort to make Palin seem like an average American hockey mom. Having several years’ worth of the average American’s income spent within a couple of months on clothes and accessories tends to do that.
As I said, I don’t really think these gaffes are meaningful politically, and I don’t consider them examples of disdain for average people or hypocrisy, but they’re pretty amusing. It makes me wonder if my satire about the Republican Party trying to be funny contains a kernel of truth …