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A slip of the tongue is not a "lie." Chill out.

By Scott Tibbs, October 17, 2012

The Left is in a tizzy about Mitt Romney's statement that terrorism was not discussed in the 2008 presidential campaign. Rachel Maddow had some fun with it on her program and it is now turning into an Internet meme. You see, this is what is wrong with politics.

The key is Romney's follow-up statement: that a year later, the world changed. What would have changed the world in 2009?

What really happened here is obvious. Romney clearly meant there was not a discussion of terrorism in 2000. The world-changing event, of course, would be the war crimes committed on September 11, 2001.

The meme is that Romney is either an idiot who has no clue what he is talking about, or that he is just a liar. Both are silly. Romney said 2008 when he meant to say 2000. That's all. This is the kind of mistake that every single person on the planet, without exception, has made at some point or another. It is what those of us in the reality-based community call "a slip of the tongue."

But in today's hypersensitive, highly charged political atmosphere, this kind of error is not acceptable. If you make this error, you are a liar or a bumbling fool.

Folks, this is ridiculous. I am a hardcore literalist. I believe that the best way to interpret something - whether it be text or spoken word - is by taking it literally. Yet I am not so deranged as to say a word like "sunset" is a "lie" (the sun does not actually rise and set, after all) or that a meaningless slip of the tongue is an unpardonable offense. Chill out, have a glass of warm milk and take a nap. You're just embarrassing yourself with this kind of nonsense.