Obama's "57 States" Gaffe Nowhere Near the Worst

It seems that Senator Barack Obama has said something a bit off key to get the bloggers, pundits and newscasters, not to mention the Clinton team, in an uproar again. At least this time it isn't anything to scream "foul" over, just a simple miscount. In one of his many speeches, the junior senator from Illinois tells his audience that he has been to "57" states with "one more left to go" (he also explains that his staff had nixed the idea of going to Alaska or Hawaii). So a lot of people are now having a little fun at Senator Obama's expense.

But Senator Obama's gaffe is nowhere near the worst gaffe of this campaign year. There have been some real eye-openers, some laugh-out-loud-mistakes, and some not even worth mentioning except to perhaps to get a rise out of the opposition.

Back in October, Mitt Romney repeatedly interchanged the names Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden in a speech in Greenwood, South Carolina. Although the Romney campaign was quick to assert that Romney simply mispoke and Obama simply shrugged it off, saying, "That happens...", Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton told ABC News: "Apparently, Mitt Romney can switch names just as casually as he switches positions..." The Romney camp was playing cheap politics, associating the name of the infamous terrorist with the Democratic candidate for effect, yet doing so with plausible deniability built in.

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, recently visited the Middle East to promote his foreign policy expertise. While in Jordan, McCain repeatedly made the remarks that it was "common knowledge" that al Qaedists were being trained by Iran. He said it more than once before an aide corrected him soto voce. For those not in the know, Iran is a Shiite nation. Al Qaeda is a Sunni extremist group. Senator McCain was conflating Shiite terrorists being trained in Iran and fighting in Iraq with al Qaeda terrorists, something that president George W. Bush has done since the war began. However, the difference is that Senator McCain apologized and corrected his mistake.