Many fair-minded observers have asked "what is the difference between Romney's 47% secret video gaffe and Obama's clinging to 'guns and religion' gaffe of 2008?" That's a fair question. First it's important to know what a gaffe is. There is the classic definition from Michael Kinsley 30 years ago describing a gaffe as when a politician says something true that he really believes, but is offensive to certain voter groups, i.e. a Democratic politician in the 1980s saying that Japanese cars were better than American cars. But there are other gaffes as well. A gaffe can be something a politician says that may or may not be true, that he/she may or may not believe, but is still considered wildly offensive to certain voter groups and perceived as having a harmful effect on a candidacy.
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