gaffes

The French president is hoping a yet another reworking of his cabinet will lift his flagging reputation

The drug of choice among political journalists is the gaffe. It is either a trivial slip of the tongue — especially, in Michael Kinsley’s immortal definition, when a politician tells the truth — or some trifling but embarrassing incident: a dropped football here, a silly hairnet there, indicative of nothing in particular but invested with all manner of spurious significance by the media herd.