Gaffes and the political parties

The article "Is there a double standard for political gaffes?" from Fox News, compares the backlash from rhetorical mishaps between Republicans and Democrats. They give quite a few recent examples of politically incorrect public statements from both parties, and note how the Democratic Party seems to blow their opponents mishaps out of proportion. Although the Republicans try to do the same, it doesn't seem to have the same effect.

Reading this made me think about negative face, and how the two parties try to use bad things about their opponents in order to make themselves look better. Such as taking a gaff that probably didn't mean what it sounded like, and blowing it up so it makes the person look like they have bad intentions. With things such as social media being so prevalent with our politics now, there is more room for error. Tons of these quick tweets and posts have not been looked over by publicists and are then susceptible to the same blips that ordinary people make all the time. Now how each party uses them for their own personal gain, is a whole other part.