Senator Obama’s recent remarks about “working-class lunch-pail folks” who “cling to guns or religion” were made at an April 9th fundraiser at the stately Pacific Heights home of Ann and Gordon Getty (yes, those Gettys). Attendance was limited to Obama supporters willing and able to donate generously. Looking at that audience, the Senator forgot: there are no more closed-door meetings. The people he was talking about heard those remarks.
When Howard Dean celebrated his Iowa Caucus victory in 2004, he thought he was partying with his ardent supporters, young people who had worked hard on his Iowa campaign and were ready to whoop it up. Governor Dean forgot: there are no more closed-door meetings. People who didn’t know him heard his whoop and judged him by that momentary lack of gravitas.
Virginia Senator George Allen was at a 2006 re-election campaign rally in rural Southwest Virginia, his stronghold, when he forgot. The evidence is more compelling, since the Senator, surrounded by fellow good ‘ol boys, spoke right to the video camera held by the Virginia-born student whose ethnic origins he was ridiculing. The media now label these gaffes “macaca moments” in Senator Allen’s honor, but the candidate just forgot: there are no more closed-door meetings.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license.
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