The History of Presidential Debates in America 1960-2008

This Friday night Barack Obama and John McCain will meet in Mississippi for the first of three Presidential "debates". The term debate isn't actually the correct term for the format of any of the "Presidential debates" that have been a regular part of the political landscape every four years since 1976. The correct term would be "joint appearance" since the candidates don't really follow the rules of debate, but "joint appearance" has sort of a clinical sound to it, so most commentators and observors refer to it as debate, so debate it is. In post-1960 America, "joint appearance" could easily be misconstrued. There used to be a joke in the 70's that Congress would have a "joint session" to debate legalization of marijuana, for instance. With so many words in the English language already having taken on different meanings than the original, it's a losing battle. (Al Gore sigh).

Which brings us to the history of these Presidential debates. I found it hard to believe that 1960 was the first time the two major party Presidential canddiates actually had debated, but it's true. Before that time, candidates debated the other candidates in Presidential primaries, but it wasn't until Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy squared off on Sept. 23, 48 years ago, that Americans were treated/subjected to Presidential debates in the fall. It was 16 years before it happened again after that date.

Starting in 1976, I believe it was, even the Vice Presidential candidates began to engage in these debates, also. I was only 4 years old when the Kennedy-Nixon debate took place, so I don't remember that one, but have heard my Dad and others of his generation discuss the affair and have seen all the others since that time. Here are the 10 most memorable goofs, gaffes and zingers I can recall in these history of Presidential debates.

Kennedy-Nixon
Most of the old-timers will tell you when it comes to Kennedy-Nixon, that radio listeners thought the debate was a standoff, some even gave Richard Nixon an advantage. However, TV viewers overwhelmingly thought John Kennedy won the first Presidential debate. Nixon reportedly was recovering from the flu, that sounds like an excuse to most, but Nixon blundered by declining makeup. His handlers instead dabbed his face with something called "lazyshave" designed to cover up the famous 5 O'Clock shadow of the man known by detractors as "Tricky Dick". With the ultra-hot TV lights in those days, the product didn't work as designed and Nixon appeared unkempt and surly and made a bad impression on many undecided voters. This first debate was probably the difference in a "razor-thin" election with Kennedy beating Nixon by a hair.

Ford-Carter
After an 16 year hiatus, the bicentennial of America brought about the next Presidential debate, this time between Gerald Ford, the only President who was not elected as either President or Vice President, and former Georgia Governor and peanut farmer Jimmy Carter. Ford had assumed the office of Vice President after being chosen by Richard Nixon to fill out the term of the disgraced Spiro Agnew, who resigned after being indicted for accepting bribes as Governor of Maryland. Then came the constant drip of the Watergate scandal which brought about the resignation of Nixon. Gerald Ford inherited high inflation, high unemployment and a severely divided country due to Nixon's many scandals.

Jimmy Carter was a fresh faced "Washington outsider" who smiled often and spoke of leveling with the American people. Carter, who had served only one term as Governor of Georgia, has been the "boogieman" in nearly every Presidential election since, with the Democrat inevitably compared by the GOP to Carter.

In the second of three debates, President Gerald Ford made a serious gaffe and then compounded the problem by denying that he said that "Russia does not control Poland or any part of Eastern Europe" and "never will under my administration". Millions of Americans heard Ford say just that. Then, when the moderator of the debate gave Ford a chance to wiggle out of the quote, Ford repeated the claim. The next day Gerald Ford denied making the claim, when everyone in the World knew Russia had a stranglehold on Poland and most of Eastern Europe and could not believe the President of the United States stated otherwise in front of millions of viewers. That, and the fact that Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon surely cost Ford the election.

Carter-Reagan
About the only thing most viewers of this snoozefest remember is the Reagan quote "there he goes again" after Jimmy Carter challenged Reagan's lack of health care proposals. That, and the now-famous Ronald Reagan query to Americans: "are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Of course, most Americans answered no to that question and to the one term Presidency of Jimmy Carter which is mainly remembered, fairly or unfairly, for long lines at the gas pump, high inflation and an embarrassing take over of the American Embassy in Tehran and the failed attempt to rescue the hostages. As a result, any points made by Carter fell on deaf ears and failed to stick to Reagan, known by some as the "Teflon President".

Reagan-Mondale
The Presidential debate between Walter Mondale and the incumbent President Ronald Reagan was dull to the point that it made Carter-Reagan seem positively exhilaterating by comparison. If Jimmy Carter couldn't beat Reagan four years earlier, how then could his former Vice President Mondale do so? He couldn't and everyone knew it. Colorado Senator Gary Hart probably would have run a slighly better race than "Mon-Dull", but Senator Hart couldn't rein in his libido and nobody knew what any of his "new ideas" were. When asked about his age in one of the debates, Reagan was to be the oldest President if reelected, the Gipper replied "I refuse to exploit my opponent's youth and inexperience for political gain". Mondale was in his late 50's or early 60's by then, the audience laughed, Mondale didn't know how to respond, and the election was, for all intents and purposes, over.

In a sidebar, the first memorable moment in the short history of Vice Presidential debates occurred not in the debate itself, but afterward. Then VP George H.W. Bush told the press when asked how he thought he did in the debate against the first woman on a major party ticket, Geraldine Ferraro: "we kicked a little ass, didn't we?" Imagine the reaction in this era if Joe Biden made a comment like that after debating Sarah Palin...

Bush-Dukakis
The only thing most of us recall about this Presidential debate is: Bernard Shaw's question to Michael Dukakis concerning capital punishment.
"If your wife Kitty was raped and killed would you reconsider your position?" Dukakis, an opponent of capital punishment, in his robotic way, gave a listless, rambling answer that, no, he would still oppose the death penalty. I suppose the question was a chance for Michael Dukakis to show his human side and let viewers get to know him as a man. The Saturday Night Live skit of the Presidential debate of 1988 famously had Jon Lovitz as Dukakis telling himself "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy!" referring to George H.W. Bush, who bumbled and stumbled through both the real debate and the skit.

Bush-Clinton-Perot
1992 was a strange Presidential election year. After George H.W. Bush's approval ratings soared to record heights after the first Gulf War, just a year later Bush found himself not only locked in a tight battle with a little-known Governor of Arkansas in Bill Clinton, but also with third party candidate H. Ross Perot. Perot, eccentric to put it mildly, used what seemed like nightly appearances on Larry King Live to catapult himself to the top of Presidential polls by early summer. Then, 46 year old Bill Clinton, the youngest serious candidate since JFK, began to gain ground and passed both the elder Bush and Perot in the polls by late summer.

Perot's popularity and standing in the polls forced the first three-way Presidential debates. As unlikely as it might be to imagine a three way debate before this one, the trio of Bush, Clinton and Perot debated that fall. After Bush constantly used the slogan: "Read my lips, no new taxes" in his successful run in 1988, and then signed the biggest (at that time) tax increase in history, the elder Bush was vulnerable on that issue and anything having to do with the economy. "Don't read my lips, read my record" was the line Clinton used to great effect, much to Bush's chagrin. The camera panned Bush's face immediately after the line, the man looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. Perot double-teamed Bush that night with his folksy lines such as "we've gotta roll up our sleeves and clean out the barn". Bush made his biggest impression in letting the camera catch him looking at his watch. And the rest, as they say is history as Perot got 19% of the popular vote, a record high for a third party candidate, Clinton 43% and George H.W. Bush a record low for an incumbent President, 38%.

Gore-Quayle-Stockdale
In the Vice Presidential debate in 1992, Ross Perot's running mate, retired Admiral James Stockdale, provided comic relief between the verbal "ping-pong" as Stockdale called it, of Dan Quayle and Al Gore. This was the only case that I can recall in which the actual debate was more entertainiong than the Saturday Night Live skits of the Presidential or Vice Presidential debates. I rolled on the floor laughing as Admiral Stockdale answered one question from the moderator: "what's that, I didn't have my hearing aid turned on", then responded to another with: "who am I, why am I here?". In the ensuing SNL skit, the late Phil Hartman impersonated Stockdale quite well. In the skit, Dana Carvey as Perot took Stockdale for a Sunday drive and tried to abandon his running mate by the side of the road after reassuring Stockdale that his performance was "world class!"

Clinton-Dole
The scowling, first-person talking Bob Dole had no chance against the smooth talking Bill Clinton, long known as "Slick Willie" in Arkansas. Every time Dole would attack with a line like: "Bob Dole knows better than to try to implement socialized medicine" or something to that effect, Clinton would respond with something like "a hungry child never got fed or educated by politicians attacking each other". An actual line from the debate was when Dole responded to a question of what his strongest point was: "Bob Dole's strongest point is that Bob Dole keeps his word" breaking the record for first-person references in one sentence in a Presidential debate. When Bill Clinton was asked if Bob Dole was too old to be President, Clinton responded with his most memorable line in the 1996 Presidential debates" "I don't think Bob Dole is too old to be President, it's the age of his ideas I'm concerned about".

Gore-Bush
The main thing that stands out in most memories of the 2000 Presidential debates was the seemingly constant sighing done by Al Gore. That and the term "fuzzy math" that George W. Bush kept using in describing Gore's remarks concerning Bush-onomics. Every time Gore said that the Bush proposed tax cuts combined with all of Bush's "compassionate conservative" agenda would explode the deficit, Bush would pull out the "fuzzy math" card. Hmmm. Seems to me that most of Gore's prediction was spot-on, but that's just me. Al Gore was lampooned by Saturday Night Live's Darrell Hammond for his use of the term "lockbox" referring to what should be done with social security funds. Of course, Gore comes across as a kind of guy such as Mortimer Duke in the 80's film Trading Places. When attempting to explain the trading of pork bellies to Billy Ray Valentine as played by Eddie Murphy, Duke said "pork bellies are made into bacon, like you might find in a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich".

Bush-Kerry
The things about this Presidential debate which stand out are: whatever it was on George W. Bush's back that made the man look as if he were trying to audition for the role of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, John Kerry's crowding of Bush as Bush answered, or evaded questions depending on your point of view, and Bush slouching on the podium like a high schooler running for sophomore Class President in the first debate.

Pundits tell us that the first debate is the most crucial. As Bush took the stage four years ago, there was a large hump on his back with a wire connected. Was Karl Rove or Dick Cheney on the other end telling Bush what to say? I have never heard that explained. On some of Bush's statements, John Kerry approached Bush, close enough to tell what aftershave Bush was wearing. I'm sure it wasn't Richard Nixon's "lazyshave", no beads of sweat formed on Bush's face, but many people saw that as rudeness on Kerry's part, maybe an attempt to intimidate. Voters don't take kindly to such tactics, normally. As for George W. Bush's slouching on the podium, his wife Laura reportedly brought her husband's posture and body language to his attention and Bush did not repeat the bad posture in the other two debates.

I seriously doubt if many voters remember anything that was said in the Bush-Kerry debates, I don't. However, I do believe that voters took note of Kerry standing too close to Bush and a small percentage accordingly voted for Bush, perhaps enough to swing the election in Ohio, the critical state. Kerry's lack of deference might have made the difference in the most recent Presidential debate.

As for tonight's McCain-Obama Presidential debate, it will take a few days to tell who won or lost, but the good news is that there will be a Presidential debate as scheduled. The American people need to know what, if anything the two candidates intend to do about the economic mess the country finds itself in, regardless of who was at fault.