The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

Why This Gaffe Gets To Me

Usually, Meghan, I'd agree with you entirely that gaffes get more attention than they deserve, at the expense of the substance that should matter more. But I hope this McCain embarassment gets it due in this news cycle, because of the link I drew earlier to his Chelsea Clinton joke. John Dickerson (Slate's political correspondent, if he needs an introduction) is always saying that the gaffes that matter are the ones that confirm our preexisting suspicions about a candidate's weakness. We thought George Allen was a boob; then we knew he was a boob. Laughing at someone else calling Hillary a bitch is evidence of McCain's coarseness, which we've already seen, and which in my mind doesn't bode well for the kind of people he'd want to run the EEOC, say. So maybe I shouldn't care much, but I do.