Conservative mistakes - or - If a Liberal gaffe falls amongst journalists, does anyone cover it?

It is early days in the campaign, and none of the Conservative gaffes from the first week will affect the eventual outcome, but some things need to be noted.

1. The media is looking for gaffes from the Conservatives, and they will highlight them more than they will mistakes from the other parties. I know, the old tin-foil hat conspiracy of media bias..but it's true. And it's the #1 reason that tight message control is required.

2. The father of a deceased soldier can say whatever he wants, without retribution, correction, or perspective setting. His son paid the ultimate price, leave it alone.

3. The puffin poo. Maybe it was a clever way to drive more eyeballs to notaleader.ca, and had the added effect of an image of Dion being crapped on out into the media. Great, if it was the only "mistake", then you could claim it was perhaps a bit of cleverness. But when other genuine mistakes follow, it gets lumped in with those.

4. Despite the above, the Liberals haven't gained any traction outside of the media and punditry. This shows how weak they really are. Clever stunts aren't required to wipe out the Liberals, they'll do that themselves. All the CPC has to do is run a consistent and gimmick free campaign, and a majority is the likely result.

5. Many of the CPC mistakes are correctable because the Conservatives have a professional organization, with the ability to make change quickly. The Liberal mistakes have not been covered as widely, but the Libs suffer from disorganization and lack of central control, so Liberal gaffes will - continue - to - happen. For Liberal gaffes to be covered though, they need to be the only gaffes in town.

Week one is almost out of the way, lessons have been learned, apply those lessons for the coming weeks.

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