The Screwups of Campaign '08
Presidential campaigns are so carefully stage-managed that few things are as entertaining as the mistakes politicians make on the trail. Throughout the 2008 race, check out TIME.com's ongoing chronicle of each candidate's gaffes, and then vote on just how big a screwup each one is
We all make mistakes, but few get as much notice as the high-profile goofs committed by politicians on the campaign trail. Here's how you ranked the candidate gaffes of 2008.
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Rank
Name
Candidate
Avg. Rating
Total Votes
1 Sunni/Shi'ite Slip McCain 9 490 2 Sniper Misfire Clinton 9 479 3 Surge Screw-Up McCain 8 1,489 4 Geography Glitch McCain 8 1,145 5 Gramm Gaffe McCain 8 961 6 Tobbacco Warning McCain 8 938 7 Social Security "Disgrace" McCain 8 854 8 Terrorism Tussle McCain 8 766 9 RFK Tribute? Clinton 8 726 10 Lobbyist Loss McCain 8 616 11 Unruly Underlings McCain 8 469 12 Hapless Halloween McCain 8 433 13 Rationale Clinton 8 428 14 Hagee Moment McCain 8 399 15 Mistaken March Romney 8 270 16 McCain's Housing Crisis McCain 8 126 17 McCain's Rich Index McCain 8 122 18 "Czechoslovakia" McCain 7 1,024 19 Coler Barrier Clinton 7 631 20 Colombia Crash Clinton 7 520 21 "Hussiein" Hiccup McCain 7 373 22 Bill Problem Clinton 7 318 23 BET Botched Blast Clinton 7 275 24 MLK Mischaracterization Clinton 7 274 25 Palin's Doctrine? Palin 7 268 26 Palin's Takeover Tale Palin 7 175 27 McCain's ER Care Plan McCain 7 132 28 "Bitter" Bungle Obama 6 655 29 Middle East Mishap Clinton 6 504 30 Pastor Problem Obama 6 439 31 Power Outage Obama 6 433 32 Freudian Slip McCain 6 392 33 Pledge of Allegiance Palin 6 156 34 Presumptuous Seal Obama 5 842 35 History Lesson Obama 5 818 36 Muslim Snub Obama 5 761 37 NAFTAGate Obama 5 327 38 Green Screen, Take 2 McCain 5 136 39 McCarthy Comment Obama 5 7 40 Unfriendly Behavior Obama 4 1,015 41 Translation Trip-Up Obama 4 713 42 "Typical" Grandma Obama 4 515 43 "Proud" Wife Obama 4 359 44 "Stand Up" Slip Up Biden 4 200 45 "Muslim" Mishap Obama 4 192 46 Palin Demotion Biden 4 159 47 Geography Goof Obama 4 135 48 "Barack" Bungle Biden 4 129 49 Presidential Introduction Obama 4 123 50 Word Game Obama 3 340 51 Penn State Fumble Obama 3 176 |
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