The press has been mulling which of two recent “gaffes” by the presidential contenders is llikely to prove more damaging: Mitt Romney’s suggestion that we need to “cut back” on firefighters, cops, and teachers; or President Obama’s assessment Friday that, despite the weak economy, the private sector is “doing fine.”
On Hardball Monday, David Corn of Mother Jones, an msnbc contributor, pointed out why the two comments aren’t exactly equivalent. Said Corn:
The difference between what he said and what Obama said was, Obama’s was a gaffe. This really seemed to indicate what Mitt Romney is thinking and what he would like to do to this country. Indeed, Romney has been pretty clear about his stance. As Corn noted, Romney recently told teachers he believes that smaller class sizes—something that would be hard to achieve while laying off teachers—would do little to give kids a better education. And his camapign chair, John Sununu, doubled down on Romney’s desire to lay off teachers in an interview with msnbc’s Chris Jansing earlier Monday.
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