Biggest Political Gaffes of 2010 and the Role of New Media

Somewhat Reasonable ^ | December 29, 2010 | Jim Lakely

[seamus]

Slate’s David Weigel has complied his list of the five biggest political gaffes of 2010 that weren’t really gaffes. But before we get to Weigel’s gaffes, I want to highlight his lead, which lays out well the forever-changed media landscape:

The 2010 midterms marked the final handover of political news judgment from the professionals to the amateurs and operatives. Consider: Four years ago, when then-Sen. George Allen of Virginia, then running for re-election, called a Democratic video tracker “Macaca,” you could not see the video on your phone. You couldn’t tweet it. It was largely up to news organizations whether they covered the video, which is why conservatives blamed the Washington Post for blowing it up into a scandal by covering every angle of the incident.

Isn’t that quaint? Now we find out about damaging gaffes and videos because people record them (or clip them from TV) and put them online, then spread the word through social media. Most of the “must-see videos” from the trail this year got that way because conservative or liberal blogs were obsessing over them and the rest of the media had to notice.

Yes. It’s an open and unanswerable question as to whether George Allen’s political career could have been destroyed, single-handedly, by an obsession of The Washington Post in 2010. The paper’s attempts to blow Bob McDonnell’s college writings into another “macaca” incident flopped. Anything that weakens the power of lefty, partisan organs like The Washington Post is a good development for the media and democracy. And it’s only going to get worse for the MSM in the future.

OK. That bit of business out of the way, let’s get to Weigel’s Gaffes of the Year …

[seamus]

Another snippet from that blog post:

2. Nancy Pelosi: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

As Weigel writes, “this was the phrase that launched a thousand campaign ads.” Indeed. He adds, though, that the famous quote “wasn’t actually what she was saying,” and he provides the full quote:

You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.

Let’s put aside the fact that Pelosi thinks it’s “very, very exciting” to believe in her fantastical and counter-economical version of government-run health care. Weigel gives, I think, a little too much leeway to Pelosi here. Sure, the full context of the quote shows that “Pelosi was trying to say that the press was only reporting he-said-she-saids about the bill, and that its benefits would become clear, and popular, once it passed.” But the truth of the matter is that Pelosi didn’t know what was in it. (And she didn’t care. Pelosi only cared about getting government’s hand on the throat of our health care system). Her audience didn’t know what was in it. And the American people still don’t know what’s in it, but are learning more with each passing week — and polls show that they hate it more now than when Pelosi spoke (as Weigel notes).

Members of Congress can’t be expected to know every possible policy ramification of the legislation they pass (though they should consider the possible negative effects of their policy decisions a reason to pause.) But they should damn well know the language and mandates of the the bill they are passing. By that accurate definition of Obamacare, Pelosi instituted a legislative abomination, and the gaffe of truth. She hardly deserves being let off the hook.

[ak267]

lets not forget our favorate agitator: Alan “taliban” Grayson.

[seamus]

Ahhhh, ak267. That guy is gaffe-tastic ... and also soon to be an ex-congressman (thank God).