The Metastatic Gaffe

Charlie Krauthammer at the Washington Post writes an excellent piece about how Obama managed to turn a mental lapse and absurd idea into an even worse doctrine, devoid of reason and ignorant of history:

Having lashed himself to the ridiculous, unprecedented promise of unconditional presidential negotiations -- and then having compounded the problem by elevating it to a principle -- Obama keeps trying to explain. On Sunday, he declared in Pendleton, Ore., that by Soviet standards Iran and others "don't pose a serious threat to us." (On the contrary. Islamic Iran is dangerously apocalyptic. Soviet Russia was not.) The next day in Billings, Mont.: "I've made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave."

That's the very next day, mind you. Such rhetorical flailing has done more than create an intellectual mess. It has given rise to a new political phenomenon: the metastatic gaffe. The one begets another, begets another, begets . . .

The metastatic gaffe - what a perfect (and terrifying) term for this whole mess. I can't think of a more dangerous phenomenon for the most powerful person in the world to possess.