Presidential Gaffes

In Jay's most recent Impromptus column he points out these recent fumblings:

Almost every day, we could have an item that says, “If George W. Bush had said that,” or, “If Sarah Palin had said that,” or, “If Dan Quayle had said that,” etc. Barack Obama says 57 states, he says “I don’t know what the term is in Austrian,” etc. And now we have “Happy Cuatro de Cinco!”

When I was coming of age, politically, there was a hot book called Reagan’s Reign of Error. Everyone laughed over it and rejoiced in it, because it was supposed to show what a dunce Reagan was. I believe there were similar books about GWB. Will there be a collection of Obama’s goofs and gaffes?

I wouldn’t wait up nights — and this will not be for lack of material. And the vice president could fill a library.

Speaking of vice presidents: Remember when Al Gore said, “A leopard never changes his stripes”? Remember when he translated our national motto — E pluribus unum — “Out of one, many,” which is bassackwards? Remember when, at Monticello, he looked at busts of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, et al., and said, “Who are these people?”

Dan Quayle’s “potatoe” episode was far more famous than any of this. Everybody makes mistakes — it’s only human. It’s just that mistakes by conservatives are . . . what? Amplified? Publicized and mocked to death, making them part of our collective memory, entering them into the national lore?

An old, frustrating story . . .

Isn't that funny and so annoying? I was between 8-12 years old when Dan Quayle's "potatoe" episode occurred, but in spite of being so young, I can vividly recall it happening. If it weren't for these conservative publications I read, I would never know anything about how often it occurs among liberal politicians as it does among conservative ones.