COMMENTARY | While speaking in South Carolina to endorse Mitt Romney for president, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., made a gaffe, captured on CNN video, in reference to the economy that will undoubtedly be used against Romney throughout the primaries -- he mistakenly called the former Massachusetts governor "President Obama."
"I am confident, with the leadership and the backing of the American people," Sen. McCain said, flanked by Romney and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, "President Obama will turn this country around."
It took a moment to register, but as the Arizona senator said, "We believe in America. We believe that our best days are ahead of us," both Haley and Romney closed the bracket, with Haley prompting McCain, "President Romney."
As the audience laughed at the faux pas, McCain repeated Romney's name a few times, mouthed a comedic drumbeat, and emphasized "President Romney" would turn the economy around.
The gaffe provided a light moment, but, as the Republican candidates attempt to curry support for their own respective nominations and the "anybody but Romney" contingent searches for anything to discredit the former governor, the gaffe will likely be used in attack ads against Romney in upcoming primary and caucus states. The slip of tongue will lend itself to the narrative Romney's opponents have been trying to highlight throughout the campaign that Romney is too liberal. He's just like Obama.
The easiest comparison will be the health care system in Massachusetts that Romney -- as governor of the state -- supported and signed into law. It is the system that the Obama administration readily admits was their model for the much maligned Affordable Health Care Act of 2010 (derisively called "Obamacare"). It is perhaps where Romney is weakest.
Some will say that McCain's verbal gaffe was Freudian, that Romney and Obama are so alike that his mind -- followed by his tongue -- performed a thoughtlessly easy substitution. Others will say it was just a simple mistake. But there is little doubt it will be used against Romney going forward.
In the end, although the endorsement of a revered statesman like Sen. John McCain is a feather in the cap of the Romney campaign, something to be used for political advantage, it came with a gaffe that reminds conservative voters of why they dislike President Obama as much as they do.
And why they have reservations about Mitt Romney as the Republican nominee.
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