Best debate lines
“No I don’t, Bernard. And I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all of my life.” — Democrat Michael Dukakis in 1988 when asked by Bernard Shaw of CNN if he would favor the death penalty if his wife were raped and murdered.
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“I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” — Democratic vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen after Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle said he as much experience in government as John F. Kennedy.
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“There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.” — President Gerald Ford in an October 1976 debate.
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“I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience” — President Ronald Reagan in 1984 as he dismissed suggestions he was too old to serve a second term.
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“Who am I? Why am I here?” – Admiral James Stockdale, vice presidential running mate for Ross Perot in a 1992 vice presidential debate.
Huge audience
Monday’s debate is expected to crack the 100 million mark in average U.S. television audience, a threshold that has been reached by a non-Super Bowl only once previously: the 1983 finale of the M*A*S*H television show. By comparison, the Academy Awards last February had an audience of about 35 million.
FIRST DEBATE MONDAY
We’ll make sure you don’t miss a minute of Monday’s first-ever debate between the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
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As Dennis Eckart watched old video clips of Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle boasting he had the same government experience as John F. Kennedy before he became president, the then-Democratic congressman from Cleveland scribbled in his legal pad: This guy thinks he is JFK.
Eckart’s research, as part of a team coaching Democratic vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen for the debate, prompted Bentsen to conceive and deliver a scathing rebuke that prompted loud cheers from the audience: “I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
It was the kind of moment – where the choreographed appears spontaneous – that has transformed routine debates into defining events. And it is exactly what Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump hope to avoid Monday at Hofstra University in New York.
The list of mistakes to avoid is long: Don’t forget the makeup, as Richard Nixon did in his first presidential debate against Kennedy in 1960. Don’t sigh in disdain like Democrat Al Gore in 2000 against Republican George W. Bush.
Don’t look at your watch as President George H.W. Bush did in the second debate in 1992. Don’t prematurely liberate Eastern Europe as President Gerald Ford did in 1976.
And for heaven’s sakes, if you plan to scrap three federal agencies as Texas Gov. Rick Perry proposed during a 2012 Republican debate, don’t name the first two and then say, “what’s the third one, let’s see?”
“You try and learn the lessons from the past mistakes, but there is always something new,” said Charlie Black, a Republican consultant in suburban Washington who helped prepare Ronald Reagan for his 1984 confrontation with Democrat Walter Mondale, and George H.W. Bush in 1988 and 1992.
Little impact
Some critics say debates are vastly overplayed in importance. They point out that despite Nixon’s sickly appearance in the first debate, the Gallup Poll showed Nixon and Kennedy tied before their four debates and virtually tied on Election Day, with Kennedy prevailing by fewer than 120,000 votes out of 68 million cast.
Ford may have sounded ludicrous when he declared during an October 1976 debate that there was “no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.” But despite the gaffe, Gallup polls showed Ford steadily gaining on Democrat Jimmy Carter throughout October before losing by two percentage points.
Bentsen’s debate line may be the most memorable in history, but it had little impact on the election, which George H.W. Bush won handily over Democrat Michael Dukakis.
“Debates have been built up over the years to be this huge media spectacle, but in the end I’m not sure they have determined the outlook of the election,” said James Manley, a onetime adviser to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Barry Bennett, a former adviser to Trump, said debates “used to matter more because it was the only time we could see the candidate for an hour talking to the voters. Now we see them every day” on the cable networks.
Still, the audience for Monday’s debate will eclipse any single audience involving the candidates to date, and may set a record for presidential debates. The candidates will attempt to lay out their vision for America, score points with a zinger or two, expose their opponent’s weaknesses (and highlight their strengths) and by all means avoid the type of mistake that will dominate news coverage for days or, worse, weeks.
Reinforcing images
Political analysts contend debates can reinforce the image voters have a candidate. Before his debate against Bentsen in 1988, Quayle was regarded by many voters as lacking the experience and gravitas to be vice president and his debate performance sealed that image.
“Debates matter because of the appearance of spontaneity and the opportunity for mistakes,” Eckart said, adding debate preparation is more than just advising a candidate what points to emphasize, but also anticipating what the opponent might say.
To get Bentsen ready, Eckart watched every video of Quayle he could find. Although Eckart and other Democrats regarded Quayle as the “quintessential media-driven candidate” with “boyish good looks,” he often compared his experience to Kennedy, while jamming his hand into his suit jacket pocket as Kennedy often did.
During a meeting in a Texas hotel with Bentsen and Dukakis advisers, Eckart predicted Quayle would raise the comparison, saying if he “owned this hotel, I’d bet it.” When Bentsen replied Kennedy had been his friend, the others urged him to use it.
Like Quayle, other candidates have inadvertently reinforced an image they have tried to shed. In a 1988 debate when Dukakis was seen as a bloodless policy wonk, CNN’s Bernard Shaw asked him if he would support the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, were raped and murdered.
In a calm and matter-of-fact tone, Dukakis replied, “No I don’t, Bernard. And I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all of my life.”
It wasn’t an answer that would soften Dukakis’ image before voters.
“With Dukakis … the one thing he has only loved in his life is Kitty Dukakis,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic consultant in Washington. “But the answer he gave didn’t make him sound as a human being or a husband but as a policy wonk. That reinforced in voters eyes he cared more policy than people.”
By contrast, Republican President Ronald Reagan relied on his Hollywood training to use a clever quip to change voters’ perceptions that he was too old or too conservative.
When he ran for re-election in 1984 at age 73, he stumbled in his first debate against Mondale — a 56-year-old former vice president and senator — raising doubts whether he could serve a second term. As Reagan prepared for the second debate, Black recalled the president joking he would not use Mondale’s youth and inexperience as a political issue.
The delivered line caused even Mondale to break out in laughter.
As the debate began, Black said he and Reagan adviser Ken Khachigian were taking notes in a holding room. “When he pulled that line out,” Black said, “we closed our notebooks and celebrated.”
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