A big part of Lincoln Chafee's appeal comes from his status as someone who speaks his mind and doesn't engage in the relentlessly on-message plastic political rhetoric of Washington and even Rhode Island.

Yet there are times when Chafee lets loose with the unrehearsed quality for which Joe Biden is well known, and his so-called "campaign announcement" last night on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show is a case in point.

It's no secret that the Republican-turned-independent is running for governor -- a story first reported here.

But the following statement from the Chafee campaign shows how the former senator got ten feet out on an eight-foot board, a tendency that will bear watching during the coming campaign. In other words, the first national TV coverage of his gov run seems to have included a significant gaffe: 

A statement from Lincoln Chafee:

“My comments last evening on the Rachel Maddow Show regarding my candidacy for Rhode Island Governor, were based on the positive feedback I have received thus far in my exploratory campaign.  My intentions are to run for Governor.   Senator Specter’s announcement to leave the Republican Party only served to reinforce that my decision to leave the party in 2007 was the right one.

However, I am still a Visiting Fellow at the Watson Institute at Brown University and once my commitments there have concluded, I will make a formal announcement.”