In the long annals of presidential-campaign debating, there had until this evening been three famous-disaster moments:
1) 1976, Gerald Ford and Poland. This one wasn't quite fair. Ford was trying to make a reasonable point -- that the Polish people would never consider themselves a vanquished population. But what he actually said was, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and under a Ford Administration there never will be." And since the background imagery of those days was an (also unfair) mainly SNL-based theme that Ford was not really that bright ... well, it made trouble for him. And the Jimmy Carter campaign, for which I was working at the time, did all we could to rub it in.
2) 1988, Dan Quayle and Jack Kennedy. He walked right into this one -- and Lloyd Bentsen was there, crocodile-like, just waiting for him.
3) 1992, James Stockdale, "who am I?" Sigh. (For the young: he was Ross Perot's running mate, and was in a debate against the other VP candidates, Quayle and Al Gore.)
4) 2011. Now, sadly, there is a fourth. I think anyone watching had to feel bad for Perry. I do.
More from Garance Franke-Ruta. Poor Perry.
![Email this Article]( "Email this Article")
![Add to digg]( "Add to digg")
![Add to Reddit]( "Add to Reddit")
![Add to Twitter]( "Add to Twitter")
![Add to del.icio.us]( "Add to del.icio.us")
![Add to StumbleUpon]( "Add to StumbleUpon")
![Add to Facebook]( "Add to Facebook")
![]()
![]()
![]()
1) 1976, Gerald Ford and Poland. This one wasn't quite fair. Ford was trying to make a reasonable point -- that the Polish people would never consider themselves a vanquished population. But what he actually said was, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and under a Ford Administration there never will be." And since the background imagery of those days was an (also unfair) mainly SNL-based theme that Ford was not really that bright ... well, it made trouble for him. And the Jimmy Carter campaign, for which I was working at the time, did all we could to rub it in.
2) 1988, Dan Quayle and Jack Kennedy. He walked right into this one -- and Lloyd Bentsen was there, crocodile-like, just waiting for him.
3) 1992, James Stockdale, "who am I?" Sigh. (For the young: he was Ross Perot's running mate, and was in a debate against the other VP candidates, Quayle and Al Gore.)
4) 2011. Now, sadly, there is a fourth. I think anyone watching had to feel bad for Perry. I do.
More from Garance Franke-Ruta. Poor Perry.
