Is there a difference between a gaffe and general dimness?

To listen to the pundits and spin-meisters out there trying to compare Palin and Biden and further lower expectations of her (as if…) you wouldn’t think so.

But, as the countdown to the VP Debate ticks away, I think a distinction between the two needs to be drawn and drawn clearly. I will henceforth attempt to do so.

First of all, the definitions:

gaffe- a social blunder or faux pas, a blatant mistake or a misjudgment.

Dimness- the state of not being bright or not understanding clearly, or in some cases just ignorant or stupid.

OK, so let’s take a look at our two vice-presidential candidates and some of their fairly recent remarks as they pertain to the above two words.

Biden – On Hillary Clinton, said “She might have been a better pick than me.”  I would consider this simply a misjudgment and a little pandering to the audience on Biden’s part.

Palin – On Hillary Clinton, said “Her whining turned me off!” Also, a misjudgment. Granted, she had no idea that 5 months later she would be tapped to be a heartbeat from the Oval Office and put in a position where she might have capitalized on those 18 million cracks by siphoning off significantly more than those 50 or so PUMA votes she’s got in the bag now. So, let’s call it a gaffe for a lack of foresight.  Can’t blame her for not seeing that one coming, though.

Biden – On Senator Obama, said “you got the first mainstream African American guy who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy.” Well… Clearly, it’s a gaffe, and perhaps a Freudian slip. Definitely falls under the social blunder / faux pas / borderline racist heading, but I wouldn’t call it dimness. I guess Obama kind of put Biden in the same category he’d put his grandmother. As the Japanese would put it: Syoganai (nothing can be done!)

Palin – On Senator McCain said, while talking about job creation, “that’s exactly what we’re going to do in a Palin / McCain administration.” Again, this is clearly a gaffe. Some have gone as far as to say it wasn’t a Freudian slip as much as it was a Cheneyian slip, but was there ever a politician that wasn’t ambitious?

Biden – On the AIG / Wall Street Bailout, said, “No, I don’t think they should be bailed out!” Well, it seems Biden has a hard time staying on the Obama prescribed script. After all, he has written his own script and the scripts of others for many years. He’s a dinosaur and a sacred cow and Obama knew what he was getting when he selected him. His answer doesn’t reflect a lack of comprehension of the question as much as it reveals where he and Obama’s opinions differ. Obama had the foresight to say that is one of the reasons he enlisted Biden in the first place. Clearly he anticipated this kind of issue.

Palin – On the AIG / Wall Street Bailout said…well, I’m sure everyone has seen the Katie Couric interview and the SNL skit which was almost verbatim. I think we can all agree that placing the bailout “under the umbrella of job creation,” borders on absurdity.

Actually I’m having a Palin Moment right now and I can’t think of anymore issues in common where she and Biden both committed gaffes or exhibited dimness. So, let’s just take a look at their unrelated Fuck me! moments.

I guess the biggest mistake in Biden’s career would be the time he plagiarized a speech from a UK politician. That would fall under the heading of bonehead. Albeit, it was pre-Google, he should have known it was easily verifiable. If he had done it recently i would say it was utterly stupid.

For Palin, I’d have to go with repeatedly lying about the Bridge to Nowhere. Politicians lie, and no one would have faulted her for trying to slip one past us in a convention speech. I think everyone would have chalked it up to the everyday spin, twisting and turning all politicians do. Par for the course. But, after it had been disproved, she continued, rather obliviously or worse indignantly, to tell it. That raises her politicking to another level. It became a big Fuck You Fact-Checker liberal assholes and the self-righteous sleigh you slid in on! Real people like me, they really like me, and they don’t care if I lie a little to the people paying attention. So, now that it has backfired, and all credibility is shot, and it all began with that destination-free bridge, I can say with some assuredness that that first lie was the worst lie and the stupidest lie to deny and repeat (especially in the google age and on the biggest stage in the world)

Back to Biden…he said in his debates with Obama that “(Barack) isn’t ready to be president.” Well, how forgivable is that? He may even still feel that way. But, he’s toeing the party line now as well as he can and I don’t expect much more from him.  I don’t even think that qualifies as a gaffe. I mean, it only became a gaffe after Obama won the primaries and a super DOH! when Obama tapped him for VP.

Palin can’t name a magazine she reads. Palin can’t name a Supreme court case other than Roe V Wade. Palin doesn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is. Palin believes that Reverend Muthee aided her ascension to governor by warding off the witches in her path. Palin  These are not gaffes.

You know, part of me wants to say, so what. She is representative of good many Americans. I have so many friends who have less of a clue about politics than she, and frankly couldn’t give a shit about the Bush Doctrine, Bush V Gore or even Brown V. Bd of Ed. If you ask them about magazines they’d say XXL is better than Source and Essence is better than “O”. But they read them all. On The Bailout, they’d say “I ain’t getting none of that money…fuck I care.” On Afghanistan and Pakistan they’d say, “Paki who? Motherfuck a Pakistani…tell me why my job moved to India!” On Russia and Georgia they’d say, “the only Georgia on my mind is the one with gas lines a mile fucking long!” On Obama, they’d say, “shit, white folks been fucking up this government since it started, why not give a brother a try? He couldn’t possible do worse than Bush!” On the existence of witches, they’d say, “I ain’t touching that one. All I know is my ex’s moms was into some kill a goat and dance in its blood shit and she didn’t like me, and I ain’t gonna say she did it but after a couple of weeks…let’s just say, I couldn’t…ahem…get the job done.”

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to be continued…