That One Thing

It looks to me like it's possible that McCain's "That One" gaffe may just turn out to be one of those memes that will seal up his electoral doom. I'm sure that someone has talked about how things like this work (for another political example, the PC attack ads depicting Chretien's "crooked smile"), but it seems to me that this might be a sort of strange example of the tipping point at work: a teeny tiny, perhaps off-hand comment that acquires larger-than-life significance and acts a sort of memic or discursive fulcrum around which public opinion decisively shifts.

Can anyone point me towards any theory that examines this phenomenon?

That One Thing

It looks to me like it's possible that McCain's "That One" gaffe may just turn out to be one of those memes that will seal up his electoral doom. I'm sure that someone has talked about how things like this work (for another political example, the PC attack ads depicting Chretien's "crooked smile"), but it seems to me that this might be a sort of strange example of the tipping point at work: a teeny tiny, perhaps off-hand comment that acquires larger-than-life significance and acts a sort of memic or discursive fulcrum around which public opinion decisively shifts.

Can anyone point me towards any theory that examines this phenomenon?