The debate was on LOGO, the gay cable channel — safe to say that it's not one of the most-watched networks (from the NYT Caucus blog: "LOGO, a digital cable channel..."). Still, in the age of YouTube and 24-hour cablers it's scarcely necessary to have actually watched something on TV at a given moment — the highlights are available on the wrap-up — and, as George Allen now knows, particularly juicy ones get plenty of play. So let's see how the Richardson gaffe measures up.
Here's the damning excerpt, courtesy of the HuffPo LiveBlog with Katharine Zaleski and Lane Hudson, who were reacting in real time as Richardson spoke with panelists Melissa Etheridge, Margaret Carlson and Jonathan Capeheart:
KATHARINE: Whoa.
LANE: NO HE DIDN'T!!!
KATHARINE: Richardson just told Melissa that Homosexuality is a CHOICE!!!!
LANE: He just said that homosexuality is a choice. What a freakin' moron! He just lost every semblance of gay support. It is OVER. Take him off the stage.
KATHARINE: And Melissa just asked him AGAIN...because she thought he didn't understand.
LANE: I'm done listening to him and so is the rest of LGBT America. DONE. If he didn't get it the first time, he doesn't need to hold the office of dog catcher.
Something else to read, and even more to watch; Etheridge saying "I don't know if you understand the question" is only the beginning of the squirm-fest. It's a blunder on many levels — even apart from revealing his own prejudices and/or uneducated stance, it's a blunder because he does so precisely in the forum where he should not. He fumbles this ball, badly, and comes off looking oafish and confused. Not exactly inspiring — and not at all presidential. Let's just assume for the sake of argument that in a hotly-contested Democratic field with three front-runners ahead of him and heavy competish for the middle, something like this oughta be enough to rule him out. Ergo, Macaca moment.
So: Will it sink him, as a Macaca moment ought, by virtue of its intuitively-understood eight-month old definition? Well, that depends on my question from above: Does anybody know?
The short answer to that is...kind of. Though the ratings for the LOGO debate aren't yet in, we're willing to hazard a guess that the audience was probably not as high as the CNN/YouTube debate (2.6 million) or likely the previous AFL-CIO debate on MSNBC (under a million). Even so, that's just the raw feed; what makes a Macaca moment is the pickup. The LOGO debate was duly covered the next day by the cable nets, the papers, and the blogs (alas, did not catch Friday's nightly news broadcasts but cannot find it on any of ABC, NBC or CBS news homepages — which is odd considering that CBS and LOGO have a news partnership via their ownership by Viacom), as well as, of course, on YouTube — proving again the difference the Internet/blogosphere makes in the discourse.
But was it recognized as a Macaca moment, as a "Holy-crap-did-he-just-say-that-wait-rewind-
he-couldn't-possibly-have-oh-my-God-he-did" TV event? It doesn't look like it (especially given the lone post garnered on TVNewser, that barometer of all things, well, TV-newsworthy). Richardson's gaffe didn't lead most reports on the event (the lede tended to be "the first-ever gay issues debate happened, and here's what Obama/Clinton had to say" followed by the Richardson gaffe a few paragraphs in) (or lower, cough NYT cough). That is, if the reports mentioned Richardson — unlike this article from the Boston Globe, which doesn't even mention it. Nor did Howard Kurtz in his next-day Media Notes, nor did The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, whose take was otherwise quite astute (again, it was mostly Obama with some Edwards, and this throwaway on Richardson: "Bill Richardson seemed a little bit out of sorts but survived." Er, yes, stumbling over the easiest, most predictable question ever into being completely written off by the very constituency you're looking to appease will do that).
Contrast, say, Ambinder's response with that of Hudson and Zaleski above — there is a disconnect to be sure. Perhaps it's that the country, for all its Brokebacks and "Will & Grace" reruns, is still slow on the uptake on just how insidious this whole "choice" thing has been; perhaps it will be a slow build, hammered home by a blogosphere that won't let it go and the endless replaying of YouTube clips (Andrew Sullivan is currently on vacation, but — oh ho! — he'll have something to say about it). But also, it could be that, still, gay-related slurs still don't quite pierce the consciousness in the same way. That's my impression from learning of Richardson's other gay-issues Macaca moment — which I'd never heard of before now. Apparently, in a guest appearance on Don Imus' show (oh, the irony), Imus asked Richardson if an aide was a maricon" — Spanish slur for "fag," apparently — and Richardson jovially agreed and went along with the joke. The panel asked Richardson about the "Maricon Moment" on the air, for which he said he "meant no harm"; then Etheridge lobbed him a softball about choice and that was it for him. (Interestingly, the account of the maricon incident appears in the full-length AP article on the debate here but not in this tightened version).
So this was actually Richardson's second Macaca-ish moment regarding gay issues, which means he's either a not-entirely secret homophobe or, in the benefit-of-the-doubt version, has colossally bad judgment and a big mouth — again, not exactly qualities you want in a president either way. Which leads me back to my original question, in the form of a corollary: Does anybody care? If they do, what does this say about how well the media has served their interest in pointing that out? And if they don't...well, a leader like Richardson sure isn't going to help much on the path to enlightmentment.
There is another possibility, of course - that Richardson's already toast, and wasting the ink it would take to focus on him would be tantamount to mounting a five-part in-depth series on the policy papers of Mike Gravel. But letting these gaffes slide by with minimal focus sends a message. And also, it's a choice.
Townhall: Gay Democrat Debate in 10 Minutes [YouTube]
MSBNC: LGBT Debate Coverage [YouTube]
Bill Richardson flubs in debate, says gayness is a "choice" [YouTube]
Related:
HuffPo's LiveBlog of the GBLT Debate [HuffPo]
Boston Globe article that doesn't even mention Richardson [Boston Globe]
And, Hey! Also Related:
Richardson's OTHER Macaca moment on gay issues [Gay Wisdom]
Why didn't Bill Richardson get the "macaca" treatment? [McBride's Media Matters]