Obama prided himself on respecting the intelligence of the voters but he sometimes needed help connecting with the average person.
During the 2008 Pennsylvania primary he claimed that the mistake he made in saying some voters «cling» to guns and religion (his only major gaffe of the entire campaign) was one of «syntax.»
Afterward Senator Claire McCaskill told him, «Barack, don’t use that word ‘syntax’ again. In Missouri we think that’s the tax we pay on beer.»
Jonathan Alter (2010) – The Promise. President Obama, Year One. (s. 272).
