Dr. Oz, Abortion, and “Local Political Leaders”: Anatomy of a Gaffe

James Surowiecki
3 min readNov 1, 2022
Dr. Oz, before he ran for Senate (Creative Commons)

One of the great coinages in the lexicon of American politics is the Kinsley gaffe, which the political columnist (and old friend of mine) Michael Kinsley described as a moment when a politician accidentally tells the truth. And in last week’s Pennsylvania Senate debate between John Fetterman and Dr. Oz, Oz gave us a truly remarkable Kinsley gaffe about abortion.

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James Surowiecki

I’m the author of The Wisdom of Crowds. I’ve been a business columnist for Slate and The New Yorker and written for a wide range of other publications.