The Irish electorate's rejection of the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon on 12 June 2008, was viewed by some media and political observers as a protest against Cowen and his government. The "Irish Independent" called the failed referendum's aftermath the government's "biggest political crisis in decades". Columnist Brendan O'Connor called the outcome "a humiliating failure for Cowen and the people who put him there". The Taoiseach himself arguably dealt a damaging blow to his own side when, on 12 May 2008, he admitted in a radio interview that he had not read the Treaty of Lisbon in its entirety. The treaty was eventually approved by Irish voters when the successful Twenty-eighth Amendment of the constitution was approved in the second Lisbon referendum, held in October 2009.