john--

Can't tell if you're being tongue-in-cheek or not (rather, not sure exactly the extent to which the tongue is planted within the cheek). Anyway, not sure I can chalk every gaffe up to a "gaffe school" (or, as the Germans like to call it, "Gaffenschuele") or even to tactical trickery. What about those gaffes that are just so clearly going to be poorly-received that coverage of them trumps any "apology" (or non-apology) that is made? I'm partly thinking macaca, but also Obama's "cling to guns and religion," Father Whatsisname's "There's a black man in my nomination" monologue at Obama's church, Hillary's "sniper fire" and Biden's "Obama is a nice clean black man." Is all this a result of Gaffenschuele? And, if not, then clearly it shows that candidates (and their campaigns) are fallible, and that they can make mistakes, like the McCain one you cite above.

Do you suppose Gaffenschuele tests are multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank?