GOP gaffes: What the Perry and Cain moments taught us

Let's touch briefly on the "gaffes" by Rick Perry during the Republican debate last week and by Herman Cain two days ago during an interview.

That was no fodder for obvious mockery, nor for everyone had a good laugh about it. Let's acknowledge the reality of the situation: Everyone who was on the Perry bandwagon or the Cain bandwagon must be dissuaded by the lapse of memory or long pause; everyone who has dismissed Perry or Cain because of the incidents previously really considered them viable.

By no means was the only effect on the race to be the GOP nominee it might have had was allowing those who didn't consciously realize they didn't think Perry or Cain was the one to grasp that was how they actually thought.

Obviously it was not utterly meaningless, and the only reason we're (still) talking about it is clearly not because there's a bunch of outlets that need something to talk about and a bunch of people with need of something to discuss.

To any voter who was backing Perry or Cain and now has forsaken him over the goof alone: You are exactly the sort of voter who stay get to your polling place with all due haste on the day of your state's primary election. That's precisely the sort of capricious stuff that we really need more of in politics.

And for those voters who do actually regard a candidate's positions when deciding whom to support: What the hell is wrong with you?