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What's your favorite politician blunder/misspeak/"oopsy" moment??

joko104 said:
There are so many by politicians, but I think Santorum comparing homosexuality to "sex with dogs" and "man-on-boy" sex was a huge mistake. It made him seem bizarre even to some anti-gay religious people who wonder just how deeply he thinks about sex with dogs and boys.

The real gaffs were such as the brain freeze of Perry (only could remember 2 agencies) and a couple others. He went from near certain winner to blown out by actually relatively minor gaffs that had nothing to do with issues.
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Not really. A lot of anti-gay-rights folks subscribe to "the gay marriage, then pedophilia, then bestiality" slippery slope argument.

And I don't believe Perry was ever going to be a near-certain winner. His gaffe potential was merely a ticking time bomb. It was gonna go off sooner or later, that debate just happened to be the one where it went off.
 
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Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we. - Bush II

There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again. - Bush II

I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense. - Bush II

Is our children learning? - Bush II

I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft. - Bush II

President Bush was munching on some pretzels when he choked and fainted. All this time we were worrying about Osama bin Laden, turns out he was almost done-in by Mr. Salty. - Jay Leno about when Bush choked on a pretzel.
 
Couple from Obama:

"The Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries."

"UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

"Let me introduce to you the next President -- the next Vice President of the United States of America, Joe Biden."

"Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change."
 
tessaesque said:
Couple from Obama:

"The Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries."

"UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

"Let me introduce to you the next President -- the next Vice President of the United States of America, Joe Biden."

"Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change."
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Well, to be fair the first two are absolutely true.
 
StillBallin75 said:
Well, to be fair the first two are absolutely true.
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Yeah, it's just that the structure of the first statement makes it awkward and the second statement was made in an attempt to defend increasing govt. involvement in healthcare.
 
One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy Corpse-Man Christian Brossard. - Obama

No, no. I have been practicing...I bowled a 129. It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something. - Obama

What I was suggesting -- you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith... - Obama

Why can't I just eat my waffle? (And my personal favorite) - Obama
 
tessaesque said:
Further:



If she were making an honest mistake she'd have fessed up, not continued to misrepresent the information and avoid clarifying or correcting her statement. She made a very hyperbolic, dangerous claim in her efforts to smear Rick Perry and his support of the HPV vaccine. By her own statement she did not research the mother's claims but merely went on the word of one woman (allegedly) and then had the balls to make a generalized statement about the vaccine's "adverse side effects". That kind of speech is reckless and irresponsible and she should have come out with a statement apologizing and providing truthful information in its place.
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I read that bit of article. She was stupid/wrong. You don't have to be deceitful to say something stupid in politics.

You assume she was deceitful. I see her as more stupid and stubborn. She may have been deliberately lying, she may not have.
 
My favorite gaffe-machine is probably Prince Philip:

"Still throwing spears?" (Question put to an Australian Aborigine during a visit in March 2002)

"Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed." (during the 1981 recession)

"You are a woman, aren't you?" (in 1984, in Kenya, to a native woman who had presented him with a small gift)

"Your country is one of the most notorious centres of trading in endangered species in the world." (in 1991, in Thailand, after accepting a conservation award)

"You managed not to get eaten, then?" (in 1998, to a student who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea)

During a state visit to China in 1986, he famously told a group of British students: "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed".

"If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." (at a 1986 World Wildlife Fund meeting)
 
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liblady said:
i think being tired and saying 57 states is understandable, we all know HE knows how many we have.
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If you're going to start making excuses for one candidates gaffe, why not make excuses for all candidates' gaffes?

I don't like the partisanship where we excuse the gaffe of one yet make accusations of others. Either we make excuses for all or we objectively hold them to their mistakes.

That is fair.
 
Wake said:
I read that bit of article. She was stupid/wrong. You don't have to be deceitful to say something stupid in politics.

You assume she was deceitful. I see her as more stupid and stubborn. She may have been deliberately lying, she may not have.
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Right. Whatever you say, Wake. She's a paradigm of good intentions and Obama's a wild and crazy lunatic. Feel better now?
 
soccerboy22 said:
One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy Corpse-Man Christian Brossard. - Obama

No, no. I have been practicing...I bowled a 129. It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something. - Obama

What I was suggesting -- you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith... - Obama

Why can't I just eat my waffle? (And my personal favorite) - Obama
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Hearing people say "Marine Corpse" or "Corpse-man" is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
 
tessaesque said:
Right. Whatever you say, Wake. She's a paradigm of good intentions and Obama's a wild and crazy lunatic. Feel better now?
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No, because I never said that, either. You just saying she's a paradigm of good intentions as sarcasm, and also saying Obama's a crazy lunatic, which I never said, either.

Obama himself said there were 57 states.
Bachmann herself did not say she deliberately lied.

:shrug:
 
Wake said:
No, because I never said that, either. You just saying she's a paradigm of good intentions as sarcasm, and also saying Obama's a crazy lunatic, which I never said, either.

Obama himself said there were 57 states.
Bachmann herself did not say she deliberately lied.

:shrug:
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Of course not. Why the hell would she say that? For that matter Obama didn't deliberately lie about there being 57 states either.
 
Wake said:
If you're going to start making excuses for one candidates gaffe, why not make excuses for all candidates' gaffes?

I don't like the partisanship where we excuse the gaffe of one yet make accusations of others. Either we make excuses for all or we objectively hold them to their mistakes.

That is fair.
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Again, if you cannot see the difference bettween a counting error and a statement that generates panic and fear in parents then you're the one with the problem...not those of us trying to explain the difference to you.

Much like there is a difference between saying "yeah, I stuffed 200 envelopes today" (when you only stuffed 195) and sending out a mass e-mail to everybody on your contact list saying you've discovered that drinking milk sold after 2/2/12 will cause you to go blind. One of those is an "oops" and the other is dangerous.

So yeah, one is pretty much a non-issue and the other is a major concern.
 
The "Sorry... oops" gaffe on Rick Perry's part was hilarious.
 
StillBallin75 said:
Of course not. Why the hell would she say that? For that matter Obama didn't deliberately lie about there being 57 states either.
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I didn't say he deliberately lied.

Either we objectively judge people by what they say, or we don't. If we're not going to accuse the lesbian mother of using her son to frame Bachmann, then we're not going to accuse Bachmann of lying. Both scenarios involve speculation; devoid of objective facts.
 
Wake said:
I didn't say he deliberately lied.

Either we objectively judge people by what they say, or we don't. If we're not going to accuse the lesbian mother of using her son to frame Bachmann, then we're not going to accuse Bachmann of lying. Both scenarios involve speculation; devoid of objective facts.
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Well I agree. Bachmann didn't lie so much as she just made up some bull**** fact and acted like it was the truth.
 
Wake said:
I didn't say he deliberately lied.

Either we objectively judge people by what they say, or we don't. If we're not going to accuse the lesbian mother of using her son to frame Bachmann, then we're not going to accuse Bachmann of lying. Both scenarios involve speculation; devoid of objective facts.
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It should be safe to assume that when one is about to make a claim that a medication used by millions can cause mental retardation that you would investigate the claim first. She did not. And if she had, she'd have had absolutely nothing to say because the evidence would have refuted it. So sure, maybe she didn't deliberately lie, but maybe she did. And it doesn't matter, because instigating panic trumps looking stupid.
 
tessaesque said:
Again, if you cannot see the difference bettween a counting error and a statement that generates panic and fear in parents then you're the one with the problem...not those of us trying to explain the difference to you.

Much like there is a difference between saying "yeah, I stuffed 200 envelopes today" (when you only stuffed 195) and sending out a mass e-mail to everybody on your contact list saying you've discovered that drinking milk sold after 2/2/12 will cause you to go blind. One of those is an "oops" and the other is dangerous.

So yeah, one is pretty much a non-issue and the other is a major concern.
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I'm not the one who tried to discern the two. See post #2. Knowing how people rag on Bachmann I stated that "at least she didn't say there were 57 states like Obama did."

It was a stupid gaffe on his part.

Post #5 is where you creat a new debate, of just exactly what the differences between my Obama gaffe, and some Bachmann gaffe you added to the table.

I never disagreed with you that Bachmann's gaffe was more dangerous. Obviously, she was wrong and was touting incorrect data. Show me where I said Obama's gaffe was more dangerous? I simply thought Obama's gaffe was stupid. :shrug:

You created the "non-issue" by turning the issue into one about dangerousness. :doh
 
StillBallin75 said:
Well I agree. Bachmann didn't lie so much as she just made up some bull**** fact and acted like it was the truth.
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Again, speculation.

If we can't speculate on the lesbian mother's intention, then we can't speculate on Bachmann's gaffe regarding deceit.
 
Wake said:
Again, speculation.

If we can't speculate on the lesbian mother's intention, then we can't speculate on Bachmann's gaffe regarding deceit.
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Sorry, I should have added "I think." I don't think she was being purposefully deceitful. I just think she's full of ****. And people who are full of **** are prone to making up arbitrary statements of fact.
 
Wake said:
I'm not the one who tried to discern the two. See post #2. Knowing how people rag on Bachmann I stated that "at least she didn't say there were 57 states like Obama did."

It was a stupid gaffe on his part.

Post #5 is where you creat a new debate, of just exactly what the differences between my Obama gaffe, and some Bachmann gaffe you added to the table.

I never disagreed with you that Bachmann's gaffe was more dangerous. Obviously, she was wrong and was touting incorrect data. Show me where I said Obama's gaffe was more dangerous? I simply thought Obama's gaffe was stupid. :shrug:

You created the "non-issue" by turning the issue into one about dangerousness. :doh
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....Seriously? You're the one who threw a temper tantrum over how we need to either "ignore all gaffes" or condemn/judge all gaffes.
 
tessaesque said:
It should be safe to assume that when one is about to make a claim that a medication used by millions can cause mental retardation that you would investigate the claim first. She did not. And if she had, she'd have had absolutely nothing to say because the evidence would have refuted it. So sure, maybe she didn't deliberately lie, but maybe she did. And it doesn't matter, because instigating panic trumps looking stupid.
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And so you make my case for me.

You don't know if Bachmann lied.

What we do know is that Bachmann did something stupid, not necessarily deceitful.

It's that simple.
 
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