Taken by itself, the latest Barack Obama verbal gaffe is no big deal. Everybody who talks makes mistakes now and then and politicians in the heat of a campaign are especially vulnerable. They talk a lot. They get tired and stressed. They should be given the benefit of the doubt.Therefore, even Obama's reference to his "Muslim faith" (corrected by ABC's George Stephanopoulos) should be forgiven and not treated as some kind of Freudian slip.
But what is significant is the double standard used by the "mainstream media" in dealing with these verbal mistakes. Conservatives who make such errors, no matter how normal and innocent, are frequently beaten over the head with them. They are replayed ad nauseum, become standard fare for comedians, and are seriously treated as examples of stupidity and/or an inability to govern.
Barack Obama, however, has received a free pass from the media on these matters even though he's been a walking gaffe machine (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and most notably, 6). Indeed, this is such a clearly established trend that the Obama campaign boasts about it as reflected in the final paragraph of the Washington Times story:
Asked to comment on the accidental misstatement illustrating the difficulty of the issue, Obama spokesman Bill Burton offered this comment: "I'm not surprised that the only outlet doing this story is The Washington Times."
Well, Mr. Burton, don't rely completely on the obfuscation powers of your friends in the liberal press. After all, the MSM are no longer the only players in town. And as talk radio, bloggers and the guys at the water cooler spread around the latest howlers, missteps and contradictions coming from Barack, Michelle and Joe, the Democrats' audacious hope of winning the White House gets slimmer and slimmer.
