A Guide to the Gaffe

„Rule No. 1: Does the gaffe fit into a prior negative narrative? When Jimmy Carter chatted about »ethnic purity« in the white suburbs in his 1976 presidential campaign, and Senator Harry Reid opined on President Obama's »lack of a negro dialect,« each statement seemed to be an out-of-character brain burp. It also helped that, respectively, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. and Mr. Obama exonerated the gaffer. (...)

Rule No. 2: Does your base stick with you? When Bill Clinton was caught »having sex« with Monica Lewinsky, he was so popular with the Democratic base-especially elected black Democrats-that they stuck by him when the G.O.P. overplayed its hand with impeachment. Today, he's one of the most respected men in the world. But when my friends Gary Hart in 1984 and Eliot Spitzer in 2006 were publicly exposed, they lacked Mr. Clinton's deep base of party affection and public support.

Rule No. 3: Can you do a convincing mea culpa? Think Barney Frank 15 years ago when a male prostitute was selling his wares from the basement of Mr. Franks' basement-or Richard Blumenthal in his Connecticut Senate race this year saying he had served »in« Vietnam, not »during« Vietnam. Each apologized and each had such deep support among liberals and veterans (see Rule No. 2), respectively, that they moved on and up. (Nor did it hurt that Barney was so brainy and funny.)

Rule No. 4: Are you a hypocrite? While no one exactly runs on an anti-family platform, it's especially damaging when, as with Representative Mark Souder two months back, you've been a big family-values Republican preaching morality to others. Forced to admit to an affair with a female staffer-and with whom he had made an abstinence-only TV tape -he didn't just decline to run but immediately resigned from the House.”