When is a gaffe a gaffe?

When it was revealed that Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook page contained a picture of someone in blackface and someone dressed as a Klansman - never a good situation - many politicians, journalists and political insiders thought he was done for. While Northam, a Democrat, is not the most popular governor in America, he remains in office. That's because the people who had every right to be outraged weren't all that outraged.

Politico reported as the time: "In a Quinnipiac University poll, 42 percent of voters say Northam should resign - but more, 48 percent, say he shouldn't. White voters are split evenly - 46 percent say he should resign, and the same percentage say he shouldn't - but a majority of black voters, 56 percent, say Northam should not quit."

Fast-forward to June. Former Vice President Joe Biden is not in Northam's category of racial insensitivity. There is no comparison between the two. However, as the Biden story played out over a couple of days, it seemed that Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who got himself booked on every cable TV show he could find, was the person in the country most outraged by Biden harking back to a time when there was "civility" with segregationist lawmakers.

One after another, prominent African American leaders (e.g., Reps. John Lewis of Georgia and James Clyburn of South Carolina) defended Biden.

Lewis, arguably the most revered African American civil rights figure alive, stated, "I don't think the remarks are offensive. During the height of the civil rights movement, we worked with people and got to know people that were members of the Klan - people who opposed us, even people who beat us and arrested us and jailed us." He continued, "We never gave up on our fellow human beings, and I will not give up on any human being." Clyburn was even-handed in chiding Biden's phrasing but recounted working with Biden and said he knew what was in Biden's heart.

White Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California ("Joe Biden is authentic"), Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California also came to his defense.

In news coverage immediately after the flap, there were African Americans who expressed anger, but many others did not. They reiterated that what he said was wrong, but suggested they wouldn't change what they thought of Biden.

This is the second recent instance in which Biden fumbled, the first being his defense and then renunciation of the Hyde Amendment. Polling after that incident didn't show a drop-off among female voters.

What can we learn from this?

First, in everyday life, loved ones say stupid and hurtful things. Feelings may be bruised and angry words exchanged, but it does not fundamentally alter relationships with close relatives and friends. That's true of voters, who look upon Biden as a friend, even a member of their political family. He is not a tabula rasa; ordinary voters not looking for controversy allow sloppy, stray remarks to go by.

Second, it may be that establishment politicians, both African American and white, are more sympathetic to someone roughly their contemporary, a peer whom they've known for decades. It could be that a younger generation - including Booker - is turned off by Biden. It may be one of many reasons Biden does much better with older voters.

Third, we may be in a post-gaffe era. We've regrettably gotten used to the president saying ridiculous, cruel and racist things. The country largely tunes him out, as he has defined political rhetoric down. Perhaps voters just don't pay attention to stupid things politicians say as much as they used to, or maybe there is so much news that a gaffe is old news before most people have heard of it.

A snippet on the news of Biden saying something is different from Biden, for example, making a huge gaffe during a debate when millions of viewers see and hear for themselves.

What a politicians does in voters' presence may matter much more than a secondhand account of what he said. Biden's willingness to stay at the Clyburn fish fry Friday night working the rope line until the last stragglers were gone may wind up making a much bigger impression on those voters (and the people they talk to) than his tale of working with segregationists.

Finally, we should have learned by now that when voters feel a close bond to a politician, confirmation bias becomes powerful and rationalization becomes easy. "I like Joe Biden, so I know this wasn't evidence of racial insensitivity" would be a common reaction. However, if all that an African American voter knows about South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the rough time he has dealing with the African American community in the wake of police incidents, then Buttigieg, fairly or not, may never get considered seriously.

In sum, just as reporters kept waiting for the gaffe or the horrible debate that would do in Trump in 2016, they may be misguided in waiting for the gaffe that will finish off Biden. Perhaps for the better, most ordinary voters consider the whole person without a scorecard counting up demerits. That doesn't mean voters won't decide that the cumulative weight of Biden's antiquated perspective and his backward orientation to the Obama years make him undesirable as a nominee.

Recent experience, however, may suggest that the Biden gaffes are already "baked in" to voters' assessment. They like him; they'll support him even if he says dumb things - just like Grandma Sue with foot-in-mouth tendencies or Uncle Joe, who repeats the same family stories over and over again.

After a while, all you can say is, that's Uncle Joe for you.

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