There's all this talk about Biden's "gaffe", loose lips from Blabbermouth Joe. Was it? No way. It was a thoroughly planned and brilliantly played operation, and worked perfectly to do what they wanted.
Why do I say this? Here's what I think happened, and why I feel this was all carefully scripted to achieve the results the administration decided it wanted.
First, Biden's interview was set up so this would certainly come up. He didn't have to do that.
Then he apologized, again very publicly, keeping the conversation going.
Finally, after all that got the conversation rolling nicely among the Very Serious People, there was Obama's ABC interview. The tell for me was, the administration called ABC and asked to set that up. Not the other way around. That said to me they wanted this. If they wanted it to go away they would never have done that.
So why did they want this? I have a feeling they decided that Obama was looking too technocrat and not inspirational enough, that he needed to recapture the big-vision thing that drove the 2008 campaign. Get back that larger than life inspirational aura. I'm guessing their thinking was, it worked then, and it will work now. Look for more big-vision things in the months leading up to the election, I'd predict.
Initially it seemed edgy and risky. Everyone was blown away when he first came out in favor of marriage equality. But look at all the poll analysis since then. There is broad agreement that looking at the numbers, Obama loses almost no votes that he already had or is likely to get, and may gain some votes for vision and boldness points.
It looks to me like a deftly planned, well analyzed, and flawlessly executed way to do what they wanted it to do - change the conversation, energize the troops, paint Mitt into a corner, and enhance Obama's image as a visionary leader with the target demographics he wants to reach.
You think they didn't figure all that out in advance? Ha. Obama is Mr. Long Game. They knew exactly what they were doing. This was a carefully analyzed and edgy-looking but surprisingly safe play.
To do this they relied on Biden's gaffe/blabbermouth reputation as the setup, where Biden, lord love him, graciously agreed to play the fall guy in this, to get the ball rolling. Was it an accident? No way. Look at how smoothly this administration has run, for years. No Drama Obama and all that. Yes, I know Obama said that Joe was out ahead of his skis or whatever. That was part of it too. Remember how Obama demonstrated his acting chops at the White House Correspondents Dinner? He certainly can't now say it was all planned, can he?
No, it looks to me like a nicely planned and well played operation. I strongly doubt that this was a gaffe.