Gaffes, in the heat of a presidential race, initially appear to have a significant impact. Reaction is generated in candidates’ stump speeches, debates, commercials and the news media.
In 2012, we heard about Gov. Mitt Romney’s comments about the “47 percent” of Americans who “depend” on government.
We heard President Barack Obama’s words (taken out of context) that initiated the often-used line “we did built that,” and Vice President Joe Biden’s statement that they’ll “put you all back in chains.”
These critical mistakes generated a significant presence in the short run. However, in the long run, there is no question that gaffes of this nature have little to no impact. Both tickets running for the presidency make mistakes so commonly that they should be received as typical and misplaced.
The emphasis on gaffes by the opposition generally tends to contribute to the negativity of the overall campaign. We can all agree that focusing on these errors further widens the divisions in politics and does anything but unite the nation.
To see the minimal impact gaffes have in the long run, we only need to look to four years ago when then Sen. Obama said that rural voters “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustration.”
Do you remember this from the 2008 campaign?
When Sen. Obama made these controversial comments, he was met with much criticism.
At that moment, he was in a difficult primary season with Hillary Clinton.
Like Obama’s criticism of Romney now, Sen. Clinton said that Americans “don’t need a president who looks down on them.”
Regardless of his ill-timed comments in rural Pennsylvania, Obama went on to win the nomination and later the presidency, with little to no detriment from this nor any other gaffe.
Like Clinton’s criticisms of Obama in 2008, the Obama campaign reacts in a similar nature to Romney; “It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.”
Both candidates, with their respective gaffes, have quickly responded, saying that they didn’t say it as well as they should have or the phrasing was rather inadequate.
Following Romney’s “winning” performance in the first debate, it appears we have reached the end of hearing about his “47 percent” comment.
While the Romney/Ryan ticket was still attacked on this issue in the vice presidential debate and in a recent Obama campaign ad, the issue has mostly blown over — until an aggressive President Obama possibly reinstates it on the campaign trail.
As evidenced by Gov. Romney’s recent surge in the polls, it appears the fact that he blatantly insulted almost half of the nation will be left to trivia — much like Obama’s previous comments.
Romney has effectively distanced himself from his controversial comments just as President Obama did in 2008.
It is clear the majority of voters do not consider these types of critical comments when deciding what candidate to vote for. Gaffes in outlets of negative campaigning are generally not received well by voters.
When we count the final tally Nov. 6, I expect the impact of gaffes to be trivial. They will be nothing more than a single line in a history book.
Matthew Schnur is an economics freshman at UF. His column appears on Wednesdays. You can contact him at opinions@alligator.org.
