CJR:

Eleven seconds. That’s how long the exchange lasted between Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and Miami Herald political reporter Marc Caputo during a campaign swing through South Florida last week.

During a multi-city visit that took Cain to a senior center in Sweetwater, Miami’s Little Havana, Coral Springs, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, the most newsworthy moment, judging by the resulting press coverage, occurred in those 11 seconds.

While in Sweetwater walking toward the senior center, Caputo, his video camera aimed at Cain, said to the candidate, “I want to ask you about, do you mind, about Cuba, about your Cuba policy, what you think about the wet-foot, dry-foot policy?”

Cain, looking and sounding puzzled, answered, “The wet-foot, dry-foot policy?”

[...]

[W]hile the Florida media did a good job of capturing the entirety of Cain’s Florida trip, media outside the state often took the easy way out: grabbing the tidbit about speaking “Cuban” and/or the “wet-foot, dry-foot” exchanges, both of which served to confirm the (again, not unfounded) media narrative that Candidate Cain does not have a good grasp of things foreign policy. That became the story —We’ve confirmed our hunch, again! Our work here is done. The episode may have revealed something about Cain, but the way it was covered revealed as much about the media. In the process, voters’ voices went missing.

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The state-run media wants you to believe that tax lawyer Michele Bachmann is so dumb …

But then writes this caption on a photo:

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In keeping with the many dozens of gaffes that Obama has made over the years, Verum Serum found another one from last February that has, with the help of the Old Media, slipped under the radar. Just more proof that Obama’s constant gaffes go unreported by the Old Media while they search high and low for the same sort of misspeaking from Republicans and conservatives.

Apparently the smartest president in history thought that Abe Lincoln built an intercontinental railroad in the midst of the Civil War.

Listen, Abraham Lincoln helped build the interstate, er the intercontinental railroad in the middle of the Civil War because he understood this was going to be important.

For being the smartest person in human history, Obama sure can be a dope sumtimes, kain’t he?

Sorry, Mr. President, but the fact is that there was no intercontinental railroad built by Abe Lincoln. Lincoln did have a hand in assisting America’s first transcontinental railroad to get built.

Even so, it was not finished until years after the Civil War and years after Lincoln’s assassination.

Now, as VS notes, this was just a simple slip of the tongue. It is easy to mix up “inter” with “trans,” to be sure. Not really a big deal, truthfully. I am sure he meant transcontinental.

But the left’s “gotcha” machine is in high gear for anyone that might be considered a Republican or a conservative. The left’s handmaidens in the Old Media are keeping a sharp eye out for anyone on the right side of the aisle who might perpetrate a misspeak or two.

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A great catch by Legal Insurrection:

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Just a couple of days after the Mideast peace-threatening incident between Israeli commandos and the “peace flotilla” headed to Gaza, Charlie Rose nabbed a great “get” yesterday when he reeled-in VP Joe Biden for an exclusive one-on-one interview.  Yes, Charlie Rose, a guy who has more kudos than the candy aisle at Costco, sat down with our Vice President — and almost nobody noticed.

Biden, the usually reliable, one-man-gaffe-machine actually came out and validated Israel’s actions against the flotilla saying;

Israel has an absolute right to deal with its security interests.

Only Fox News seemed to notice.

Saying the following to Charlie Rose, the Vice President displayed great clarity on the issue and deep knowledge of what actually happened, as opposed to what has been reported on MSNBC and CNN: (more…)