Instead, the fervor over Eagleton was such that he was gone, suddenly a potential bar-patron for the lonely streets of California. According to Webster, a gaffe is a noun. Or quaylesque, which needs no explanation. When a politician lets a gaffe, there's usually a stink. Politicians make a gaffe is the way it's usually said.
Some gaffes are bigger than others, and some are remembered more than others.
The factors that determine the size of the gaffe and hence its longevity in the public arena are several. Then if there is very little at stake, the gaffe is not magnified and set forth in the public discourse with the same determination and vigor. But when Al Gore says it, with so much at stake, it makes the news. Gaffes have been an interesting phenomenon in the last 35 years or so. He was gone.