Obama: 57 States
“Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii,” a tired Obama told a crowd in Beaverton, Oregon, in May 2008. Although this was clearly a misstatement due to fatigue, it is now the counterargument that Republicans brings up every time a Democrat IMs them another example of Rick Perry acting dumb. This flub went so viral that the Suitably Fly blog even started selling a 57-star American flag lapel pin. His blunder, while innocent, played into the notion that Obama was too inexperienced to be running for president, though, as we now know, he recovered. “Obama is tired, nothing more,” wrote the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder. “But if John McCain did this — if he mistakenly said he’d visited 57 states — the media would be all up in his grill, accusing him of a senior moment.” More recently, there have been a few gaffe-like occurrences, including the time Obama mistakenly said “Jew” instead of “janitor” when talking about fairer taxes, or when he erroneously said Abraham Lincoln founded the Republican Party (he wasn’t even the first Republican presidential nominee). Particularly cringe-worthy was when French President Nicolas Sarkozy leaned over to Obama at the G20 summit in Cannes this fall, thinking the microphones were turned off, and said of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “I cannot stand him. He’s a liar.” Obama’s response, also caught by the microphones: “You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day.”
Romney: “I’m Also Unemployed”
In an attempt to shake the robot reputation that’s long dogged him, Romney has managed to establish himself as the presidential candidate worst with a joke, from pretending a waitress was grabbing his ass to making weird puns about hollandaise sauce. One particular attempt at humor may come back to haunt him: At a Florida coffee shop in June, he listened as a group of citizens explained the challenges of being unemployed. “I should tell my story,” Romney chuckled. “I’m also unemployed.”
Since Romney’s net worth is in the hundreds of millions, and according to news reports he is still receiving millions of dollars from his Bain Capital, it wouldn’t be a shock if we heard Romney’s gaffe in a few campaign commercials if he makes it to the general election.