As of Saturday, it’s official.

Barack Obama has announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States.

The sad thing is that not even a week later, a political slip of the tongue may already be harming his reputation.

Over the weekend, Obama made a statement during a speech in Iowa that may draw criticism from his competition and from the American public.

“We have now spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted,” he said during the speech.

Yesterday, Obama apologized for the misinterpretation of the speech. He said it was meant to be a criticism of the civilian leadership in the war and not the soldiers that have died.

No matter what Obama meant, any slip of the tongue can be costly. People don’t remember the apologies and explanations politicians give; they remember the original statements.

How many people are talking about Sen. Joe Biden’s explanation? Not many. How many people are still talking of his criticism of Obama? Many. People still seem to be in shock when they hear the comment.

For those who don’t follow politics, Biden made some inappropriately interpreted statements about his opponent for the Democratic nomination.

Biden referred to Obama as “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

While Biden may have been right with the mainstream part of his comment, the rest could be construed as inappropriate because other people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Alan Keyes have also made runs for the presidency.

According to the interpretation of Biden’s statement, these prominent African American political figures were not intelligent or clean.

In reality, by clean, Biden meant politically clean. He was inferring that being a young senator, Obama had not voted on any hot-button issues that would draw flak from critics.

But does it matter what Biden really meant? Does it matter what Obama really meant? No, it doesn’t.

People won’t remember the apologies and explanations these politicians offer. They will remember the original statements that were made.

But what effect will this have on the presidential race? Being so early in the process, will people really even remember these statements?

Odds are that people will forget what Obama said this weekend long before the election. Obama will get so much more positive attention from the media that the average America person will probably forget every potentially bad thing he ever says.

But Biden on the other hand can probably kiss his hopes for the nomination away. Biden is not as well known of a candidate, and the media does not pay him attention at this point.

How can two people make comments that get misinterpreted, apologize and meet with different permanent results?

For Obama, it’s a slap on the political wrist and an, “Oh, he’s young and still learning.” For Biden, it might just be the end of his political dreams.