In the always-on news environment today’s media thrives in, anything that can be labeled a “scandal,” and take up significant portions of any day’s cycle, is worth its weight in gold. So it’s no surprise when simple things, like a misfired tweet or a misplaced iPhone prototype is labeled as such.

When the scandal tag is truly appropriate, however, the power today’s social media holds is never more apparent. The tail of anything the news loves labeling with a “-gate” elongates when social outlets get a hold.

But like anything, people eventually lose interest and move on. The only question is when the skies will finally clear. It could be a week, it could be a month; you never can tell. It’s not enough though to wait for people to stop talking about it. You need to know when it’s safe to come out of the woodwork again. That’s where sentiment analysis can step in.

For advertisers looking for an opportunity to pounce on an endorser when they’re turning the corner on a scandal, for a politician who’s looking for the opportune time to reenter the political world, for a company looking to move past a faux pas of sorts — social media sentiment analysis can hold the key. Too soon and you could risk lingering resentment, too late and you could be too far out of the public consciousness.

Take, for instance, one of the juiciest scandals to hit politics in the last decade — former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner’s resignation and subsequent attempts to return to politics. From May 27, 2011, the day he sent his ill-advised tweet, to September 2011, when the election to replace him was held, Weiner’s average sentiment rarely crept into positive territory, averaging -30 on a scale from -100 to +100. Understandably, the sky was dark around Weiner.

From that September until April 2013, when Weiner made clear his intentions to return to politics to The New York Times, Weiner’s sentiment continued to suffer, with a -26 daily average over the 2.5-year span. But things were improving. Over the next month, leading up until the day he announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the 2013 NYC mayoral race, Weiner’s average sentiment score improved to -19, not positive, but better than it had been. But his scandal still loomed large.

Though his May 21 announcement juiced sentiment and volume counts for Weiner, things never looked truly positive for a Weiner candidacy. Had the “Carlos Danger” portion of the mayoral race never happened, Weiner might have been able to overcome his past, but with a maximum monthly sentiment of just +2 in 2013, Weiner never stood much of a chance against the likes of Bill de Blasio (a +36 monthly sentiment maximum), or Christine Quinn (+25 monthly sentiment maximum) on social media.