So, yeah. When asked — on national television — what he would do about Aleppo, Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson, the great white hope of third party hopefuls, replied, "And what is Aleppo?"
Facepalm much? This is bad. Now, don't misunderstand me here. I have no doubt that Gary Johnson knows what Aleppo is, and has a detailed position on Syria. It was just one of those very human moments when the brain just misfires. Johnson later explained that he thought "Aleppo" was a reference to some acronym, and I'm willing to bet that's true. Oh, you meant THAT Aleppo! Yes, Gary Johnson knows what Aleppo is. Fuck, give the guy a break. Anyone running for president is probably teetering on the brink of exhaustion most of the time. But it doesn't matter. As they say in the biz, it's bad optics.
Look at it this way: Gary Johnson gets little enough coverage as it is. Now an entire news cycle has been spent talking about how he doesn't know what Aleppo is. It's become an internet meme, of course. Instantly it has become a Thing. If you are a typical news consumer, the idea of Gary Johnson as a viable alternative has just gone out the window.
Johnson's odds were always long. He's been hovering at around 9% in the polls, still well short of the 15% he needs to qualify for the debates. And the clock is ticking. This gaffe, silly as it is, probably lost him his chance.