President Obama was caught in an unguarded moment by a live microphone last week, telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he’ll have “more flexibility” to deal with the thorny issues of nuclear proliferation and missile defence after this election year.

The unscripted comments touched off a wave of controversy in the U.S., where Obama’s political opponents seized upon the incident as an example of the president’s arrogance and naivete in foreign policy (Mitt Romney, true to form, responded with a gaffe of his own, inexplicably dubbing Russia “our number one geopolitical foe” in an interview on the subject).

This was not the first time that a politician (or even Obama himself) has been caught by that sneaky antagonist, the live mic.  Other recent examples include:

President Bush’s “shit” moment

At the G8 summit in 2006, President George W. Bush was caught on microphone talking to British Prime Minister Tony Blair about how the United Nations could intervene in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Unaware he was being recorded, Bush demonstrated his penchant for penetrating analysis of the conflict in the Middle East:

Gordon Brown calls elderly woman “bigoted”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught complaining on a live microphone during the 2010 campaign in the U.K., following a difficult exchange with a 65 year-old woman who challenged him on a range of political issues. Brown called the interaction a “disaster” and blamed his staff for bringing the “bigoted woman” forward. The incident did little to help Brown’s public image, and his Labour party lost the ensuing election.

Carly Fiorina mocks opponent’s hair as “so yesterday”

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina was getting ready for a television interview during her 2010 campaign for the U.S. Senate in California, when a live microphone captured her taking a dig at the hair of her opponent, Senator Barbara Boxer, which she derided as “so yesterday.” Two great things about this clip: the look on Fiorina’s face when she realizes that her microphone is on, and the hilariously skeptical tone from the CNN anchor when he says that Fiorina is “quoting a friend. 

Sarkozy and Obama commiserate on Netanyahu

Last week’s incident with President Medvedev was not the first time that President Obama has fallen victim to the live mic. At the G20 summit in 2011, open microphones allowed reporters to listen to a conversation between Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sarkozy complained that Netanyahu was “a liar”, before Obama responded that he has “to deal with him even more often.” Hey Barack, new rule: next time you see a microphone in a room, you should probably just assume that it’s on.

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Matthew Frisch writes Foreign Desk for Toronto Standard. Follow him @mfrisch.

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