Gaffe of the year

[politicus]

Robert Mugabe just made what may be the biggest gaffe of the year:

Addressing top Army brass and the new leadership of the war veterans association at the ZANU-PF party HQ on Tuesday, Mugabe said Morgan Tsvangirai had "garnered 73 percent of the vote" in the 2008 presidential election (which may be true, Mugabe is one of the few people who knows the right number..).

Before Mugabe could mention his own percentage a bodyguard grabbeed his arn and the crowd  shouted "47%, 47%, 47%" after which he promptly "corrected" to the official percentage.

Is this the biggest gaffe of the year from a politician, or has there been an even bigger one somewhere?

[Vosem]

Instant reaction to this thread was to go see what @zanu_pf have to say. I was disappointed, most of the recent tweets have been bland and uninteresting and they did not mention this.

This is amusing, though I don't know if a dictator's misstatement can be considered a gaffe.

[IceSpear]

Hillary saying she was dead broke.

- DC pundits

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

What is it about the number "47%" eh?

Anyway the best American gaffe this year was "farmer from Iowa" from our friend Bruce Bongley. I think Roberts made some bad ones about thinking Kansas was total poo, but it didn't seem to sink him. Gruber's moment of elitism was also incredibly cringe-worthy.

Australia has had some pretty impressive ones - Tony Abbott's infamous wink being the worst. The LNP higher-ups seem to have an alarming knack of inserting their feet into their mouths at the worst possible moment. (Watching the Abbott's woeful performance in government gives me the same glee that I imagine right-wingers must feel when observing Hollande).

In the UK, we've had Ed Miliband failing to eat a bacon sandwich, Thornberry's public Twitter-shaming and UKIP continuing to be UKIP (although the Kipsters only draw strength from their gaffes, as the media don't seem to realise).

[Lief 🗽]

Yes, that idiot Barney Brontley up in Iowa insulting the state's beloved senior senator and the occupation of a number of its residents in a single sentence is definitely up there.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

In all fairness, Mugabe has every right to be utterly senile (after all, he's 90).

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I'm pretty sure Chris McDaniel said far worse things than Batman Berlusconi's farmer gaffe on a daily basis.

[politicus]

Instant reaction to this thread was to go see what @zanu_pf have to say. I was disappointed, most of the recent tweets have been bland and uninteresting and they did not mention this.

This is amusing, though I don't know if a dictator's misstatement can be considered a gaffe.

No the state press and ZANU naturally keep quiet about it. Its only the independent press in Zimbabwe, and (more directly) online media run by exiles, such as Radio Nehanda, that revels in it and call it both a big gaffe and a Freudian slip. There are plenty of "Mugabe is finally telling the truth" comments to the articles + some more angry ones. There is a relatively high degree of freedom of press in Zimbabwe compared to how authoritarian the government is. They try to make it appear as a democracy and then rig elections + hit hard against opponents that are deemed dangerous (or sometimes just to set an example).