This 2016 election season has certainly been unpredictable, with many notable moments from the start. With the first presidential debate creating a buzz, CBSN takes a look back at some of the most memorable moments of past debates.
That dukakis question still pisses me off to this day. It’s literally the definition of a gotcha question. If he says yes, he would be branded a hypocrite, but he said no, and was branded a robot and unemotional
He should have asked if this was a treat to his family on air in front of cameras and then make clear that he would never threat the family of George Bush and not tolarate such behavior by one of hIs supporters. Here the fun ends.
*EDIT* I do agree he came across to robotic on my re read James but as far as your suggested answer *JAMES W* I disagree. That “hold me back” stuff is painfully over used. He should have said what he feeled (which obviously he didn’t feel like most of us). He should have said... “What kind of a question is that to ask in a public presidential debate? Get some class, and conduct yourself like you had some dignity to protect. That was a rude and uncalled for question for me AND for president bush.” *SOMETHING* like that. TERRIBLE, unfair and unethical and uncalled for.
@@johncastillo2194 so Mondale is obviously not young (and henceforth inexperienced) and so the joke was sarcastic about how obviously not young his opponent is, and so he says "I dont want to make it an issue"
@@eddyvideostar Not really. Why ask such a viciously partisan hypothetical question that you know is going to massively divide voters? Why not ask such a question to Bush. Why not ask question Bush a question such as if one of his family members would become addicted to heroin, what he would do then. It was such an unfair question for a man who was probably a better candidate than Bush.
@Discarded Chicken Strip Especially an issue that Conservatives feel so strongly about. It just allowed every conservative to attack him from all angles.
@@MegaHariboboy At 8:14 minutes: To Mega Hariboby: You had replied, "Not really:" Did you mean the question was not tough? Then, if not, why use these dramatic adjectives as "vicious and partisan"? It should be acceptable to use family members in a question, in order to dig down into the soul of the candidates "goose and gander" ethos regarding deep heartwrenching situations. If one desires a certain objective, this should be acceptable all around. ---------------- If I am against the death penalty, and my wife was assassinated, I *should not* wish death upon the perpetrator. This is hard -- but simple: *One's ethos should override even the most despicable occurrences.*
@@moonshadow9178 What are you talking about? I forget the exact number but they both dodged roughly the same amount of questions. Both had moments where they looked good, and both sometimes bad. At least it was an actual debate instead of a debacle. edit: also even though he was more reserved than Trump, Pence was still very disrespectful at times and acting like he had an extra 30 seconds-1 minute per point.
Jacob P Pence answered most questions masterfully, Harris answered most questions by dodging them and bringing the “Trumps fault” to the table multiple times, which was very childish considering she had no actual evidence to back them up cause they dont exist. Yes it was a major difference from the Trump/Biden debate I agree. Hmm, Pence was disrespectful? The moderator kept giving Harris ample time to answer, while giving Pence barely any time to answer despite most of the time he had to counter-act the lies of Harris as well as answer the questions. Harris acted extremely smug and condescending towards Pence despite being given more time than Pence to answer questions. Pence acted very cool and level headed,Harris acted very smug and condescending. If you ask me the disrespectful one, and by far, was Harris. Pence even praised Harris and was very calm and collected to the moderator as well, even saying multiple times “thank you” when it was his turn to answer the question. Harris couldnt counter anything Pence said and was left fumbling for words. Some of the lies she said were so outrages like the Charlottesville lie that Pence had to cut and enter the convo, anyone in his position would have done the same thing, its a debate. Watch the video from a neutral standpoint, dont pick a side just listen to both of their responses carefully.
@@jeremy7931I’m no American, but I don’t think a politician is bad just because he isn’t JFK. During that debate, Quayle still didn’t have an important role in US politics. How did anybody know how we was gonna govern?
That Dukakis question really blows my mind. Really fucked up; and people got mad at him for not getting emotional. Yeah, because we want the guy who is helping decide policy to be emotionally driven. lol
I do know that. But they opened up the debate on a very personal and targeted question very much out of appropriate tone. Look at it this way: if he would have said he would have supported the death penalty in this circumstance, they would have viewed him as having an unreliable opinion, or a self-serving stance. They kind of left Dukakis to the wolves, where he was fucked however he answered.
It bows your mind cause you weren't around in 1988 when Bush's attacks where based on Dukakis being a little weakling and not giving a shit about anything and this was gold for him.
That Dukakis question is disgusting. I don"t know anything about this guy, but he answered with a dignity I would not have found if I were in his position.
It's a pretty rough question, but you do what to see how a potential president reacts under extreme pressure, if they're going to be responsible for life and death decisions of hundreds of thousands of members of the military and millions of citizens.
Dukakis's responded to it the wrong way. People use the your mother, your wife, and your daughter thing all the time as if it's a clever gotcha. It really tells you alot about the character of the person you're debating when they use it. The only correct reply is to point it out for the discpicable dishonest strategy to make you look bad to people who don't know better that it is and refuse to answer it
yea, it was before my time but they did him dirty. but really, he gave the correct answer. so how much blame should be attributed to the ability of the masses to think critically.
And he managed to blew it in the worst way possible. He should pointed that, and then said that is obvious that he would feel rage, but in the end, it's not him but the state that handles punishments. Instead, he sounded like a frozen heart bureaucrat.
cd6xc Yeah, he should have said "I'd feel the same rage and desire for revenge that you would if it happened to you, but in this country it's the state that dispenses justice, not grieving victims, and because I believe in the rule of law the answer, sir, is no." But it's hard to blame him for not having a perfect response scripted and ready to go.
@@cd6xc This question was no accident: but was put out there for a purpose in order to find out how he would react and deal with this. This was emotionally and expertly handled: He could have gone to war with the moderator -- but stuck to his ethos and principles under pressure.
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President Reagan's accomplished little grin after he's done taking his drink of water after the "Youth & Inexperience" line is the best thing I've ever seen.
Am I the only one who thought that was a stupid retort, completely based in rhetoric? Quayle simply compared the amount of experience that he had with the amount of experience Kennedy had. Bentsen twisted it and used it against him, as if Quayle had compared their goals/merit.
I would have said, if I were Dukakis, “I think you’re question is inappropriate and an appeal to emotion. Emotion shouldn’t be how we make policy. We don’t ask the victims of crime to decide the fate of the criminal. We try to be as objective as possible.” The question was inappropriate and purely meant to get him to stumble and falter. Shame on that journalist.
@@gevansmd1 You don't have to react like an automaton. You can cry your heart out at home and still be objective about the laws you pass. Imagine if we allowed emotionally unstable folk to become judges and lawmakers. It'd be almost as exhausting as having an emotionally unstable president ... *Cough, cough ...*
The question was unfair but makes a little more sense when you understand the context of this race. Governor Dukakis refused to run a negative campaign, employing no personal attacks or attack ads on Bush Sr, which left the negatives coming in rather one-sided against Dukakis. The attack relevant to that question was that of Dukakis' opposition to the death penalty, which in the '80s certainly had more public support than in the modern day. As Governor of Massachusetts, Dukakis supported the continuation of a weekend furlough program which did not exclude those convicted of first-degree murder. A participant of this programme, William Horton (incorrectly dubbed 'Willie'), escaped and ended up assaulting a couple, stabbing and gagging the man and raping the woman, before stealing their car. Due to this horrendous mishap of the programme, it was highlighted quite prominently by the Bush campaign to signal what a Dukakis policy would do to America. So basically the question came down to: look what happened in your state, if Bush was Governor that man would be dead, if this happened to you would you still not support the death penalty?
Then Bentsen nailed it by saying that his objectives for the country were too far apart to that of JFK that the comparison was not well taken. And that is something that even Republicans would seems a good argument. So he finished the exchange that he started with a confrontation by a very reasonable logical argument. A quick attack and finishing in style. Perfect. His problem is that he was a better presidential candidate then Dukakis.
@@schusterlehrling Maybe don't compare yourself to Kennedy when your on stage with someone who served with and was friends with him... he kind of opened himself up to that. And honestly saying someone isn't on Par with JFK isn't a super crushing insult.
Then : "you're no Jack Kennedy", "that was uncalled for, senator" Now : "you have small hands and you know what they say about people with small hands" "about my hands being small meaning something else must be small, I guarantee you there's no problem, guarantee that"
To say Quayle was an idiot would be an understatement. Dunno WTH Bush was thinking when he picked him for his running mate! He makes Dubya look like a genius, which is definitely NOT easy.
jamesthemaniac I can leave my 14 year-old sister with Sarah Palin and think she'd be safe. But I couldn't leave her with Trump. So to me Trump is too dangerous.
The fact that Palin was quoted as saying she could see Russia from her house was actually said by Fey, and NEVER by Palin herself, and that Americans fell for it, shows how far we've sunk in our duty to be informed. Anyone who can't tell the difference between SNL and real news is too stupid to vote!
Vote out all currently serving Republicans then tell GOP voters to enact some quality control on their representatives and we can return to this ✌ Source: Donald Trump and literally every single Republican in the House and Senate.
ronald regan’s destructive economic policies crippled the usa for decades and we still haven’t recovered. for that reason I can’t laugh at his funny debate moment
Trump kept interrupting, Biden lost his train of thought, and we're all left here rather clueless and looking at the greatness of the past and wondering how did we ever come to this point.
@@stevengu1253 we got here by experimenting with the wrong candidate, and before that by blindly assuming people in power had our best interests in mind. We, the people, got here out of complacency. By assuming we didn't need change. And by waiting too long to wake up to incessant corruption.
Even though Bentson was right, he obviously worded that as a knife first; accurate assessment second. Quayle was justified in saying it was uncalled for, even if true.
I recently was wondering about that. The two party system seems overly generic and inept considering the impossibility of just two sets of ideals accurately representing the views of 300 million people. I was aware of the age of the two party system, the whigs vs democrats, for example, but I was unaware that our gov't was established, by our founding fathers, with this system in mind. Surely, then, there must be some use to it?
@@TWHowl There's a lot. The logic behind the two party system is that you first, favours gobernability of the country and not diversity, second, you diminish a lot the cost to inform people about politics (if you have 10 parties, that's much more difficult), and finally, it makes big groups of voters much more used to cooperate, because in a multy-party system you really have not much incentives (or at least they're not so big) to cooperate with people who you do not agree in your party, you just can go and create another party with 80% similarities but this little differences, with a two party system, you must cooperate or lose.
Immediately after the Biden-Palin debate, a man from Delaware called to report that the restaurant and tavern that Biden asked people to visit had been closed for 30 years. Again Biden didn't know where he was.
The problem with this statement, while it is witty, is that it is unsubstantiated. The whole purpose of the statement was to undermine the answer of his opponent not by offering facts but by sly humor. His mere serving with Jack Kennedy does not in itself legitimize his statement unless he gives a concrete argument based on that knowledge. Sure, it rings great in our ears but the ones who are to make choices based on that should be able to look beyond it.
I would have responded: "You are right, Senator, I am no Jack Kennedy - I did not bungle the Bay of Pigs Invasion; I did not put our nation on the brink of nuclear disaster during the Cuban Missile Crisis; I did not get us involved in an unwinnable Viet Nam War at the cost of tens of thousands of young American lives; and if that is not enough, I did not steal the 1960 election via fraud at the ballot boxes in Illiinois and Texas; plus, I am faithful to my wife." So let the word go forth, I am no Jack Kennedy!
@@etchedinstone7562 jimmy got swagger, just seen a interview, amazing to see him 94 and still walking talking confident and clever, lmao excuse the grammar
@@bringinthedope5929 I agree, and seeing Carter comment on the Trump administration is interesting as well, the Carter presidency is really underrated by people today, he accomplished a lot.
The first one by Reagan was probably the best one. He definitely got a laugh from everyone. I saw the Dukakis one live and his response was just so formal and bloodless that it made him seem like an emotionless robot.
It was a good approach to the debate by Reagan considering the context, but the question to Dukakis/Bush was a particularly vile ‘gotcha’ question designed to make Dukakis come off poorly.
And this inability to grasp that an adult can see through the intent behind the question and stay objective and nuanced instead of giving a soap opera level "emotional speech" is why you show-obsesded Americans have all these ridiculous clowns making it in politics. Good job, keep it up and thanks for the entertainment value.
@@sub-zero5433 Spoiler alert: You're off by a major ocean and a hemisphere. Still curious why you think Brazil is the most probable assumption. Run us through your calculations :)
@Sir Knight Errant Actually he was right about Romania too, in 70-s their leader against USSR's approval have so much trade deals with US. Other socialist countries were less independence in international politics, but they have their politics in their countries just like in Eastern Germany with sexual free politics against conserviteve family politics of USSR and etc.
I was thinking the same thing. I don't know how someone could watch a clip like that and compare it to Joe Biden now and still be able to vote for him in good conscience. I mean come on man. the guy can hardly put a sentence together...
@@david4925 Well, he will probably drop out very soon. Both the Iowa caucus and NH primary results were devastating for him. He's out, and I am glad that he is out.
You know that Quayle-Bentsen “you’re no Jack Kennedy” line would’ve won the presidency if that were between two candidates for it. That’s almost, if not, equal to Reagan’s “youth and inexperience” line. Or Trump’s “because you’d be in jail”. It’s just the small line after a long monologue/answer that makes the crowd erupt. Truly an iconic line and well-deserved too because Dan Quayle is no Jack Kennedy.
It was SlackJawed McCains attempt to grab the female vote. He was already doomed to start in 08 with Bush tanking the economy and 2 wars. So in desperation he was aiming for the female vote, and when choosing Palin it was the final nail in RINO McCains coffin
Rachel Maxwell McCain would’ve lost either way given the situation no Republican would’ve won. 8 years, 2 wars and on the brink of a depression there would be no way another republican would be elected. Dems blew out republicans in the 2006 midterms it was a long war coming
Your no jack Kennedy ! That was in a pre mic drop era but wow that would compete with the best of all mic drops! And the Dukakis question was just in appropriate.
Sara Palin really doesn't sound much different than the contestant in the Miss Teen South Carolina pageant. I was just waiting for a "therefore, such as"
Vincent Cuttolo Hey, thank you so much! That seriously made my night, thank you so much for being mature about it. If everybody was as appreciative as you are, we'd definitely be a step closer to helping the entire world.
This is a really good sample of debates from the past 40+ years. Jimmy Carter gets crap for being a one term President... but he was clearly the more thoughtful potential leader when compared to Ford in that exchange. Reagan was just as I remember him at age 5-13. Though I had no political opinions at that time... he reminded me of my grandfather who always exuded a control of any situation. This is really all a President has to do. Act like you're in control and usually you get the best results. The American people just want to have that confidence in their leader.
I swear while politics are thought to be boring, presidential elections provide the best drama on tv. 2016 had some of the best comedy I had ever seen in my life.
@@diamondsprince So, uhh... about that... Kinda turned out that they both just took mediocre swings and misses at each other and made a mockery of the whole event.
You've got to remember in Carter vs. Ford that this foreign policy debate was stretching the limits of Ford's knowledge of geography. None of those European countries had teams in the NFL, after all..."You're no Jack Kennedy", has still got to be one of the greatest one liners in these debates ever, though.
Not sure about his intelligence, or his character. A writer friend of mine was present during the "potatoe" incident in Trenton, NJ. Quayle blamed the mistake on the school.
David Dutton He did it to himself. My father always told me, you don't have to tell people you are the boss, people should know. When you have to tell people that you are the boss, then you have failed as a boss.
Hagfan789 According to REAL polls, he lost like usual. Just listen to Trump and vote on November 28th, will you? Don't believe what the liberal propaganda says, vote on November 28th.
Hagfan789 lmao, are you a deaf fucking idiot? Trump just said in a rally to vote November 28th for him. Looks like your candidate has proven to be a joke for the 150th time.
The look on Benson's face at 5:44 when he realised Quale had served him up the perfect opportunity to deliver his "You're no JacK Kennedy line. Killed him stone dead.
I mean to be fair Dan Quayle never claimed he WAS JFK. He just said he had the same amount of experience as he did when both of them entered their elections.
Bensten was basically saying that even though you may have as much experience as JFK, you have never even come close to operating at the level of JFK during that experience, so don't compare yourself to him just because a statistic of yours matches his.
I've worked with a lot Poles over the years and every single one of them basically considered the Russians an occupying force, and they looked to us for help. Ford completely blew that one and he was VP for the 4 years right before his statement. It's really strange to get Cold War politics that wrong at that point in time. I know that and I wasn't even alive then and am not a history buff.
Unfortunately she was speaking the language shared by Alaska and my dear home MN. Every words she said made and actual complete sentence in those two states.
