So pathetic has our electoral process become that this is an issue. It’s not so much that Obama messed it up that’s the issue here. It’s that it’ll be largely ignored or simply brushed off, while a similar gaffe by McCain or Palin would’ve been played until the Second Coming of Christ.

This is what happens when a candidates goes off script.

Barack Obama, in Raleigh, N.C., was doing a riff attacking John McCain for supporting the idea of putting some mandatory retirement money into the stock market.

“If Senator McCain is elected, we’ll have another president who wants to privatize part of your Social Security. Could you imagine if you had your Social Security invested in the stock market these last two weeks, these last two months? You wouldn’t need Social Security. You’d be having a — like, what was it, Sanford and Son. `I’m coming Weezie!”

Except, of course, that Weezie wasn’t on Sanford and Son. He was on The Jeffersons. Redd Foxx would actually grab his chest and say:

Oh, this is the big one! You hear that, Elizabeth?! I’m coming to join you, honey!

Obama should stick to his talking points and avoid the cultural references.