From Wikipedia: “A Kinsley gaffe or ‘gaffe in Washington’ in American politics is the term used for telling the truth by accident: in other words, it describes the situation when a politician says something inadvertently in public which he or she privately believes to be true, but which he or she would ordinarily refrain from saying publicly since he or she believes the statement would be politically harmful or damaging.”
All of which seems relevant in light of this development.
It's because the public believes Obama when he defends Gates (or, earlier, Rev. Jeremiah Wright) that his approval polls are declining. It leaves non-African-American citizens wondering if Obama does not talk very differently with his black friends than he does to whites - reminiscent of Jesse Jackson's 'Let's talk black talk' before launching into his 'Hymietown' ramble back in the day. The narrative has already been established by the Wright affair and some of Mrs. Obama's comments that a sensibility of 'I'm African-American before I'm American', though much-ridiculed by the usual sources (i.e., the satirical New Yorker cover), and it will be harder for journalists to avoid covering contradictions between Obama's post-racial presentation, and his support for unpopular old-school practices such as racial preferences. The Sotomayor nomination also plays into this matter.
An accumulation of vaguely anti-white 'Kinsley gaffes' on the part of Obama, his team, and his nominees could have a very serious effect on the 2010 and 2012 elections indeed. If reporters ignore the effect, they will be once again sacrificing the reporting of the truth in favor of ideology.
#1 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Mon 27 Jul 2009 at 12:29 PM