While the image of Taoiseach Brian Cowan warbling the lyrics of the Lakes of Pontchartrain to the amusement of an assembly of Fianna Fail parliamentary party colleagues in mid September may not bear the hallmarks of behaviour normally associated with an EU Prime Minister, surely we should reflect that he does not have a monopoly on such tactless conduct. Indeed those media outlets across the globe which have been quick to pillory Cowen over the so-called “Gargle-gate” affair, including The New York Times, BBC, Fox News, Washington Post and MSNBC, are all somewhat silent when it comes to comparisons or comparable gaffes by some of the ‘great and good’ among their own political elites.
Picture, for example, the immediate response of George W. Bush to the news of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. At 9:03 a.m. on September 9th 2001, fifteen minutes after it was clear to Federal Security agencies that the United States was under terrorist attack, President Bush sat down with a classroom of second-grade children at Booker Elementary School to listen to them reading about a story about a pet goat. Or consider Gordon Brown describing lifelong Labour supporter, 66 year-old Gillian Duffy, as “a bigoted woman” for tackling him on issues relating to immigration from Eastern Europe, on the campaign trail in Rochdale in April 2010. The list of similar gaffes among such political notables as Nicholas Sarcozy and Italy’s Berlusconi goes on.
So why is it that otherwise mostly intelligent, well-advised and generally articulate leaders fall into the trap of making such blunders and indiscretions and, why do they appear do so at times when they most need a personal and political uplift?
