Here’s what our media critic JP has to say. As for the gaffe that is guaranteed to dominate cable today:
That’s the thing about gaffes: they happen not in the focal moments, but in the seemingly harmless little digressions, when you’re relaxed–too relaxed–you feel you’ve just about gotten through a high-stakes interview, and your inner censor decides to step out for a cigarette break. It just about guarantees a news cycle of outrage, apologies and, of course, questions about what the reaction would have been had President Bush made the same joke. (My guess: howls of offense from his critics, uncomfortable rationalizations from his supporters, a brief frenzy of obsession on cable news and radio, and charges that media were carrying the President’s water by downplaying the gaffe, or proving their bias by overplaying it. Let’s see if this doesn’t match up.)