Anybody else see Brokaw’s gaffe on NBC’s coverage of the convention last night?
As Ryan was being introduced, Brokaw makes a comment something like this, “Ryan is really young. He’s 42. When he was born, Reagan was already in his second year of office.”
WTF? Tom, have you lost the ability to do simple math?
He probably meant as Governor of California.
Maybe his second term as governor, which started in 1971, although that’s also a bit off. Ryan was born in January of 1970.
Yep, that’s exactly what he meant. The first office Reagan held was Governor, so “second year of office” would mean second year of political office - not necessarily the presidency.
ETA, he is a bit off. It would actually be Reagan’s third year in office. (Reagan sworn in Jan 1967, Ryan born Jan 1970)
Which is still a remarkably stupid thing to say, without clarifying it. When you hear “Reagan in office”, you think President, not Governor.
Meh, I don’t think it’s that stupid. It was just an offhand comment, after all, and it’s not like Reagan being Governor of California is an obscure factoid.
I guess what I’m saying is, that this doesn’t even compare to some of the stupid shit that comes out of the mouths of commentators, or even candidates.
“A zebra does not change its spots”
-Al Gore.
‘‘I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn’t study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people.’’
-Dan Quayle
How over the top partisan of me is it to observe that I don’t believe for a second that Al Gore has the slightest confusion what zebras and leopards look like, but there’s a very real chance (less than 100%, to be sure) that Dan Quayle actually thinks they speak Latin in South America? And about the same that he never studied Latin at all, so he could hardly have studied it less hard than he did?
I think that Brokaw, either got royally confused on the math, or he meant to say Nixon’s 2nd year in office.
Why is that stupid? Have you ever seen a zebra change its spots? :dubious:
Those little facts are told to them through their little earpieces. So blame the producer on the other end if he got it wrong. Cite.
It’s vague and kind of confusing, but it’s far from “remarkably stupid.”