Political gaffe

A political gaffe is a mistake or blunder in speech or action made by a politician that attracts media attention and public scrutiny.

The term comes from journalist Michael Kinsley, who said, "A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth – some obvious truth he isn't supposed to say." The term "political gaffe" may be used to describe an inadvertent statement made by a politician, who believes the statement to be true, while having not fully analyzed the consequences of publicly stating it. Another definition is a statement made when the politician privately believes it to be true, realizes the dire consequences of saying it, and yet inadvertently utters it in public. Barack Obama has defined press usage of the term as referring to a statement that inadvertently reveals "ignorance, carelessness, fuzzy thinking, insensitivity, malice, boorishness, falsehood, or hypocrisy – or is simply deemed to veer sufficiently far from the conventional wisdom to make said candidate vulnerable to attack".