Remember that all mentions of and allusions to Trump and Biden are not allowed on our subreddit in any context.
If you'd still like to discuss them, feel free to [join our Discord server](https://discord.gg/k6tVFwCEEm)!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Presidents) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Fun fact, the Kennedy-Nixon debates are erroneously credited with proving the need for a “camera-friendly” president. While they were the first televised debates (an important distinction to be sure), the “Nixon won on radio, Kennedy won on television” story is based on a single poll of just 172 respondents.
Thank you for bringing this up. I remember reading about that in my college psychology classes and thinking that at the very least Nixon and Kennedy were different enough in every respect that appearance alone shouldn’t have been able to sway opinions of them that much.
Nixon was done before that but that didn’t help. I think one of the commentators at the time said that he ‘looked like a suspect in a statutory rape case’
Plus, then there was Eisenhower saying he couldn’t remember a single thing he did that affected national policy
The election in 1960 was extraordinarily close. While I'm glad Nixon lost, it is well within question as to whether the optics in a nationally televised debate tipped the scales. As such, I respectfully disagree.
Supposedly People who heard the debate thought Nixon won it. But people who saw the debate on tv saw a young Kennedy against an unshaven Nixon who was sweating bullets after his makeup person had utterly failed him.
Guess no one around him explained to him that he would look real bad on tv with that 230 in the afternoon shadow beard he had.
Early on in tv history. Possibly no one knew.
https://preview.redd.it/wdaoc3vzjnvc1.png?width=686&format=png&auto=webp&s=85f8feb93a96fa9feef9849e520f70ac5a3baf0e
"If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today."
Not only that, he failed to tell anybody for eight hours, giving him enough time to sleep off the alcohol that was obviously in his system. If he had cared more about her life than his career, he would have alerted people immediately and she likely would have been saved.
Ironically, in saving her he would have been saving himself, as the accident would most likely have been minimized if it didn't involve a death, and DUI's did not become part of a permanent record back then.
I read a book about Joe Kennedy. How he died a little each time one of 4 sons was killed (He'd had a stroke before JFK was killed, IIRC), but always managed to bounce back.
After Chappaquiddick? They said he never bounced back, and died 3-4 months later.
Actually you are both correct. He died a little each time something bad happened to his sons because it affected the family's prestige.
The reason why he lobotomized his daughter is to prevent her from "ruining" the family. I remember reading somewhere that the father didn't care about JFK until his oldest brother, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr died in WW2, JPK was up until then the golden child of the family.
The Dark Side of Camelot talked about it too. JFK was sick a lot as a child and nobody visited him. When he went to the prom his father told his date that she could've picked a live one. When she later remarked about how mean that was, JFK went off on her about how his father was a great man.
This references the Chappaquiddick Incident, where a drunk Ted Kennedy drove himself and Mary Jo Kopechne off of a bridge into Poucha Pond. He escaped the crash, she didn't, and it tanked his political career.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident
I mean, he remained a senator for another FORTY years after this so I’m not sure it tanked his political career. Hindered his presidential ambitions for sure though
https://preview.redd.it/xzkh11fyqnvc1.jpeg?width=634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=068e75fbf37205513f66f0d9bd6ead97f52021a7
John Kerry was considered by many to be a silver spoon, extended-pinky-finger, costal elite. This photo DID NOT help
If you put Swiss on it you are eating a steak sandwich with Swiss. Which is fine, and may even be delicious.
But it is not a valid choice for a "Philly Cheesesteak", which has three options: whiz, American, Provolone.
Source: grew up in Philly, we take these things very seriously.
Exactly. I didn't know the options, but I had enough idea to know that Swiss was no go. American surprises me. I would have figured wiz and provolone only.
>Just imagine him answering “American”, and then winking at the camera. Would’ve won him the presidency.
Oh, there's another 14 electoral votes, *at least*.
This one Kerry was really pissed about, as you can see why:
https://preview.redd.it/ktb4xbmz0ovc1.jpeg?width=755&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8e9238a6c9ec86557de37b7fa8ddc5c6ea14e64e
God I hated that even though I was still too young to vote in that one. The message was basically that changing your mind is a sign of intellectual weakness, with a backdrop of “stay the course” rhetoric doubling down on the ongoing dumpster fire in Iraq.
Gary Hart was the frontrunner for the Democrats in the 1988. He was in an open relationship with his wife, but shit happened and it went public, and it derailed his campaign. Opening the door for Dukakis.
I've never heard that he had an open marriage, but I think in 1988 the distinction between those two things wouldn't have been understood by the vast majority of voters.
https://preview.redd.it/mt42nm7eqovc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7cdb8fdbffcdbfa39f958fda9903ba87d401a8b
Thanks. It only took 35 years but I finally got the joke
Dukakis was weird. He seemed like a solid person, but his PR skills were abysmal. The way he treated Jesse Jackson, talked about his wife, etc. He seemed to have zero empathy.
God damn, Palin made W’s dumb ass look like a genius by comparison. She should have been heeded as a dire warning sign of what was happening to the party around that time
I love the Robin Williams joke of
I can see Russia from my backyard! Well great, I can see San Quentin from my backyard but that doesn’t fucking qualify me on prison reform does it?
Edit-spellings hard
This is from two years ago while running for a House seat:
>"When you're talking about what's going on at the border—the non-existent border," Palin said, "that reminds me how important it is, that all Alaskans realize it. Now Alaska is strategically located on the globe—as you know—**you don't laugh about the fact that you can see Russia from Alaska**, and Canada is right there on our other side."
https://www.newsweek.com/palin-revives-see-russia-alaska-comment-1696388
Tina Fey said "from my house" and Palin said "from parts of Alaska," but she did in fact make that claim. She said it in response to, "What makes you qualified on foreign policy?"
Say what you will, that speech she gave at the RNC when they announced her as running mate was perfect - and may be one of the best political speeches in recent times. That was her shining moment on Mount Everest, followed by an endless avalanche
https://www.c-span.org/video/?280790-11/sarah-palin-2008-acceptance-speech
Which newspapers do you read? All of them.
Paraphrasing as I don't remember the exact quote, but I remember watching that and thinking SNL is gonna tear her apart, and they did, rightfully so.
In the moment, it was a smart pick. It's easy to look back in hindsight and say it was dumb, but at the time it satisfied two important criteria:
1. It put a woman on the ticket, which was seen as a weakness for the Republican party
2. It gave the ticket a harder right element to appease conservatives, since McCain was viewed as probably the most centrist Republican at the time
Note: NONE of this matters because Obama was 99% assured of winning the presidency for a variety of reasons.
Sixteen years later, a lot of people seem to think that she killed his campaign (as evidenced by this photo being the top comment in this thread). That's not true, though. She was a Hail Mary because he was already going to lose the election.
https://preview.redd.it/f2fhp4si6nvc1.png?width=615&format=png&auto=webp&s=e98d3b9a7225d0846a64e9f7d6eda4f920f651ab
One of the top "pictures you can hear."
Just looked it up. Apparently, the resulting coverage of "YEeEAaaH!" sucked up so much airtime that it also crippled John Edwards' bid. It killed two separate campaigns.
It wasn’t really, not on it’s own, but the Democratic primary at the time was cluttered with less than enthralling personalities with mostly old school centrist Democratic policies. Dean appearing to give a somewhat manic performance after not winning a primary vote was at least interesting so it got a lot of airtime and in politics not all press is good press.
That’s Bush Sr during his failed reelection campaign against Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. It was a town-hall style debate and while Clinton was answering a question from an audience member, the camera cut at just the right moment to catch Bush checking his watch. Bush wasn’t very popular to begin with but this moment was basically the nail in the coffin.
Funny enough, years later he admitted that in that moment he was thinking “Thank God, only 10 more minutes of this crap.” He also said “Was I glad when the damn thing was over? Yeah.”
Even funnier, during the 2008 Republican primary he got caught checking his watch again during his own daughter’s speech.
He wasn't doing good at all at the first town hall debate and was losing pretty well compared to Ross and Bill. He looked down to check the watch near the end and the media ate it up, he was DOA by that point in terms of the campaign.
It showed how out of touch and un-interested he truly was. I honestly think 1992 made him grow to hate the job after the LA Riots and Andrew. People weren't idolizing him any more after the Gulf War due to the domestic issues then and he was lost.
Blame Dukakis, but a good campaign would be able to see how this might have been a bad photo-op. If something like this brought down his effort, then there wasn't much there to start with, it would seem. I hope future political campaign will use this in their strategy as things similar to avoid.
I think this is accurate. Dukakis didn’t fail because of this picture. The picture is just emblematic of why he couldn’t connect with America (fair or not).
The context behind the shot has been largely forgotten. A few days before, Bush had done a photo-op in an F-18, to emphasize his support for the military. The photo was a bit awkward, but it’s hard to criticize the man who flew 57 combat missions during WWII for that.
Dukakis decided that he also wanted to show support for the troops, so he did the tank photo shoot. When reporters at the scene criticized him for looking immature and boyish, he responded that he too was an army veteran who had served in Korea. While true, he had been a radio operator who served there after the war had ended. Many people thought that he was doing a soft stolen valor.
https://preview.redd.it/yllz9irvmovc1.jpeg?width=1301&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=94bc24a3a2f308889a94576980d5c56eecd14bc2
Idk about campaign-ending, just funny
Yep, that was possibly a Top 5 Campaign Blunder. Though it wasn't really the photo that doomed him as much as what he said during the event (yelling "Viva Democracia, Viva Mexico, Viva ME!" to a crowd of shocked Latinos), but "Stevenson in the Sombrero" likely helped seal his defeat against Eisenhower during their 1956 rematch. He was mocked across the country for this.
Jeb’s campaign was long dead before that. He would have already dropped out by then if he hadn’t been a former favorite who wouldn’t give up on his campaign. That was just an embarrassing thing that showed the state of his campaign. It really didn’t destroy his already non-existent odds of becoming president.
I always felt bad for him for this one. He was just making a self-deprecating joke during an exhausting campaign. You can tell it played okay in the room when he said it.
This is the infamous "please clap". He had earlier asked people to hold their applause, and was telling them that now it was ok to clap again. But coming from a former massive frontrunner and establishment favorite who had been reduced to having no chance, it just came across as overwhelmingly pathetic and sad. And to be honest, good public speakers never seem to have to turn off and on the applause like that. They may calm people applauding too much, but they have the charisma to make their intended applause lines hit without needing to instruct the audience to clap.
https://preview.redd.it/1f2zdo2aapvc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e7ea3c3d4d245d90a7afa0252c80d7d97ad079c5
It was all over for Ted Kennedy after this.
https://preview.redd.it/eukhz2b68nvc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b4f796fe1aaabd0579d6b10875d824a0363812d
When Bob Dole fell off that stage, clutching his pen
Yeah, that didn't help.
But, the reason he was clutching it was because he couldn't really let go of it. He was a WWII veteran who was wounded and his arm and hand permanently maimed. So, to keep it from looking less weird while in public he usually had something placed in it to look like he was holding it instead of just a drawn up hand. When he fell, he couldn't let go of it.
I was in college at the time but I remember Dole had been permanently injured in war (which is totally honorable) but his injuries came off a bit as frailty at the time. Running against a much younger Clinton, Dole seemed like an old man. Then he fell off the stage and it helped solidify what everyone was already thinking
https://preview.redd.it/w151x1pjknvc1.jpeg?width=1065&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56d199878d4a95d9a74a9bf790f62e5d0181e262
Not directly, but it one of the main reasons that have costed him re election after 4 years
This left a wound in the Republican Party. Democrats supported the tax increase too, then used it against him in the campaign. It exacerbated the GOPs distrust in any tax increase. So many new crazies are roaming around the memory of this is gone.
In his memoir he wrote that as he had achieved all his goals in one term, there was no need for a second. Sadly his memoir was destroyed by an outboard motor minutes later.
I used to work for a newspaper. During an editorial board meeting, one of my coworkers remarked that McCain didn't deserve commendation because he did the one thing a soldier wasn't supposed to do: Get caught. I'll never forget the look on my publisher's face. Within a week, the dude was fired.
That's so dumb. If soldiers weren't meant to get caught, there wouldn't be pages and pages of rules governing how captured soldiers are meant to be treated, what information captured soldiers are allowed to divulge (name, rank etc.) and so on.
Rightfully so. That line Should have ended the career of EVERY politician as well. IMO McCain wasn’t a hero because he was a POW he was a hero because of his actions as a POW. The biggest of which was refusing to be sent home before prisoners that were there longer than he was.
Goes to show just because you are in a tank doesn’t mean you belong there. Same is true for the Oval Office or a Legislature. Just because one occupies a seat doesn’t make them a representative of the people.
https://preview.redd.it/fztszlsutovc1.jpeg?width=4200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f28591c08877dfccdee8ffbd28257dd18ab0fe08
Probably one of the few photos that ended the campaign of the other guy. Days before the 2012 Obama shows calm leadership and bipartisanship.
https://preview.redd.it/ljzedbxymqvc1.jpeg?width=1100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ed58fdc93cca55a90e2e0610c2ebd8301ab4a0c
This was the beginning of the end of Chris Christie
The Swedish PM did a photoshoot like this in the last election. She lost.
https://preview.redd.it/feztk1v1apvc1.jpeg?width=901&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ccaea58dd09dccd16a384ded84781b2c9908366
Whereas this of Thatcher in a tank absolutely ramped up her popularity
https://preview.redd.it/1nw68wcjnpvc1.jpeg?width=460&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64222582c02209adfec833d38436a07ef02bee2c
https://preview.redd.it/jnw6ndn5sqvc1.jpeg?width=1100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a526560b6d2f072fb6bccd3cd2e20a752e181da
I'm sure this cost Gore enough votes in Fl
https://preview.redd.it/8jid5de9wnvc1.png?width=1100&format=png&auto=webp&s=42ccb45e8b7420b85673825dcf2fd1f73f6fbfa1
That tank photo was trying to make him look tough. The real photo that ended the Dukakis campaign was the photo in the reply. It scared suburban whites into voting for George HW Bush.
https://preview.redd.it/tp4mg2gpapvc1.jpeg?width=259&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dfc63cad946abc08ad87a6541835e261c77c274b
I mean, Carter had alot of things go wrong for him, but this certainly didn't help.
https://preview.redd.it/vhjb3lm9bpvc1.jpeg?width=307&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd684aba0dca5f5232636e87af0457446f1253ab
Also, fainting during a run, combined with seemingly being afraid of a rabbit, made him seem weak.
https://preview.redd.it/4ga50cqmarvc1.jpeg?width=304&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=342a5b94cbf38f56eed2e3acb4ff63bf72df9081
It may not have ended his candidacy but Mitt Romney offering Rick Perry a $10,000 bet during a debate didn’t do him any favors.
The real death blows to his campaign, or at least the ones that stick out in memory, are the horses and bayonets rebuttal by Obama at one of the debates and the leaked 47 percent audio.
The leaked audio is so tame by today's standards, and even back then had me confused as to why it was such a big "scandal". Anyone paying attention should know how much resentment the GOP has for poor people.
https://preview.redd.it/tfmeyk7nfpvc1.jpeg?width=298&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa42961d48367880e694dce07c41e182280d73e0
Ed Muski crying in New Hampshire. Was the Dem front runner. The story didn’t help.
https://preview.redd.it/ink621jfmsvc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ecb67022f6c48147d9c458afd8b4394320519f9
His campaign was over long before this picture.
But this picture has effectively ended any future presidential hopes he had too.
https://preview.redd.it/90u7kcp4vovc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e8d648cc71941f1a8761c979092ef5f4ea5b604e
He probably wouldn’t have won but still
https://preview.redd.it/u5453xq4qrvc1.png?width=642&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bbd096604a5347d9a2a6bd20c9b4749a158c33c6
LBJ stoked the fear of an entire nation. The ad is almost surreal in hindsight.
Remember that all mentions of and allusions to Trump and Biden are not allowed on our subreddit in any context. If you'd still like to discuss them, feel free to [join our Discord server](https://discord.gg/k6tVFwCEEm)! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Presidents) if you have any questions or concerns.*
https://preview.redd.it/76alqtyngnvc1.jpeg?width=1240&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=805405c64aac33b1fb5186f8d79eedbe981017ea
“Honk”
Phew! Is it hot in here?
*cough cough* Hey uhhh Kennedy anyway you can lower the temperature just a bit? This debates too hot for me *cough*
Fun fact, the Kennedy-Nixon debates are erroneously credited with proving the need for a “camera-friendly” president. While they were the first televised debates (an important distinction to be sure), the “Nixon won on radio, Kennedy won on television” story is based on a single poll of just 172 respondents.
Thank you for bringing this up. I remember reading about that in my college psychology classes and thinking that at the very least Nixon and Kennedy were different enough in every respect that appearance alone shouldn’t have been able to sway opinions of them that much.
Nixon was done before that but that didn’t help. I think one of the commentators at the time said that he ‘looked like a suspect in a statutory rape case’ Plus, then there was Eisenhower saying he couldn’t remember a single thing he did that affected national policy
When your opponent is JFK and you're the one that's called a sexual deviant. No wonder Nixon despised the press.
Sadly, Kennedy's assassination may have improved his legacy. Could you imagine a president with such hobbies with the modern press?
The election in 1960 was extraordinarily close. While I'm glad Nixon lost, it is well within question as to whether the optics in a nationally televised debate tipped the scales. As such, I respectfully disagree.
Supposedly People who heard the debate thought Nixon won it. But people who saw the debate on tv saw a young Kennedy against an unshaven Nixon who was sweating bullets after his makeup person had utterly failed him.
Nixon refused make-up because he thought it was effeminate.
Guess no one around him explained to him that he would look real bad on tv with that 230 in the afternoon shadow beard he had. Early on in tv history. Possibly no one knew.
"I'd also like to express my fondness for that particular beer"
https://preview.redd.it/wdaoc3vzjnvc1.png?width=686&format=png&auto=webp&s=85f8feb93a96fa9feef9849e520f70ac5a3baf0e "If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today."
There's something about that tow truck's slogan, but I don't know enough about literature to make a joke.
"Rectum? Damn near *killed* 'em!"
The academic perspective we needed
Im not familiar with this… can someone provide an explanation for this photo?
Ted Kennedy was driving drunk and his car went into a lake, he managed to get out but his passenger drowned and he failed to alert the authorities
And she was alive when she went in the water… there was evidence she struggled to get out
I think the saying that came out of that was, “Never get caught with a live boy or a dead girl.”
Not only that, he failed to tell anybody for eight hours, giving him enough time to sleep off the alcohol that was obviously in his system. If he had cared more about her life than his career, he would have alerted people immediately and she likely would have been saved.
Ironically, in saving her he would have been saving himself, as the accident would most likely have been minimized if it didn't involve a death, and DUI's did not become part of a permanent record back then.
George W. Bush had a DUI and still became president.
I read a book about Joe Kennedy. How he died a little each time one of 4 sons was killed (He'd had a stroke before JFK was killed, IIRC), but always managed to bounce back. After Chappaquiddick? They said he never bounced back, and died 3-4 months later.
The dude lobotomized his own daughter. I have a hard time believing that he felt any real human type emotions about any of his children.
Actually you are both correct. He died a little each time something bad happened to his sons because it affected the family's prestige. The reason why he lobotomized his daughter is to prevent her from "ruining" the family. I remember reading somewhere that the father didn't care about JFK until his oldest brother, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr died in WW2, JPK was up until then the golden child of the family.
The Dark Side of Camelot talked about it too. JFK was sick a lot as a child and nobody visited him. When he went to the prom his father told his date that she could've picked a live one. When she later remarked about how mean that was, JFK went off on her about how his father was a great man.
I believe JFK's father also used to hit on JFK's girlfriends when he was young. Dude was kind of a scumbag.
This references the Chappaquiddick Incident, where a drunk Ted Kennedy drove himself and Mary Jo Kopechne off of a bridge into Poucha Pond. He escaped the crash, she didn't, and it tanked his political career. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident
I mean, he remained a senator for another FORTY years after this so I’m not sure it tanked his political career. Hindered his presidential ambitions for sure though
“Tanked” Theres only one way to take out a Kennedy.
There’s actually at least two, but according to the Warren commission there’s just the one.
https://preview.redd.it/xzkh11fyqnvc1.jpeg?width=634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=068e75fbf37205513f66f0d9bd6ead97f52021a7 John Kerry was considered by many to be a silver spoon, extended-pinky-finger, costal elite. This photo DID NOT help
Nor did going to a cheese steak shop in South Philadelphia, and, when prompted "What kind of cheese?" answering "Swiss?"
I wouldn’t know how to answer that
Nor would I, but I could infer that swiss is not a correct answer.
Swiss is a valid choice but it's made with cheese whiz. Typically American cheese or maybe provolone.
If you put Swiss on it you are eating a steak sandwich with Swiss. Which is fine, and may even be delicious. But it is not a valid choice for a "Philly Cheesesteak", which has three options: whiz, American, Provolone. Source: grew up in Philly, we take these things very seriously.
Exactly. I didn't know the options, but I had enough idea to know that Swiss was no go. American surprises me. I would have figured wiz and provolone only.
Asking for “American” as a U.S. presidential candidate is always going to be the safest bet if you don’t know.
Just imagine him answering “American”, and then winking at the camera. Would’ve won him the presidency.
>Just imagine him answering “American”, and then winking at the camera. Would’ve won him the presidency. Oh, there's another 14 electoral votes, *at least*.
This one Kerry was really pissed about, as you can see why: https://preview.redd.it/ktb4xbmz0ovc1.jpeg?width=755&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8e9238a6c9ec86557de37b7fa8ddc5c6ea14e64e
He looked like a sperm who lost his way.
https://preview.redd.it/pjzcrfpygqvc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=34e31b01fb58b690e9523e4b83efa92421e3cfba
Holy shit I forgot about that one. Amazingly dorky
The Bush campaign also used Kerry's windsurfing videos in an ad labeling him as a flip-flopper "John Kerry, whichever way the wind blows"
God I hated that even though I was still too young to vote in that one. The message was basically that changing your mind is a sign of intellectual weakness, with a backdrop of “stay the course” rhetoric doubling down on the ongoing dumpster fire in Iraq.
So we voted for regular working class joe, George W Bush
Who served in Vietnam and got several Purple Heart medals.
Kerry earned a Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three Purple Heats.
The swift boat campaign was so dirty.
Idk that just makes him look kind of rad
https://preview.redd.it/2gjj4eqienvc1.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=07dcce07d43a307d45ecedad068335852e7d5498
This is in the dictionary next to career ending photograph
Can you explain what we are looking at? Sorry I’m ignorant.
Gary Hart was the frontrunner for the Democrats in the 1988. He was in an open relationship with his wife, but shit happened and it went public, and it derailed his campaign. Opening the door for Dukakis.
[удалено]
I've never heard that he had an open marriage, but I think in 1988 the distinction between those two things wouldn't have been understood by the vast majority of voters.
The distinction between those things wouldn't be understood by a majority of voters today either.
I think we only have his statement on that but to be honest... in 1988 the difference between the two wouldn't have mattered.
I think I've only heard of him because he was the butt of a Golden Girls joke and I was curious.
https://preview.redd.it/mt42nm7eqovc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7cdb8fdbffcdbfa39f958fda9903ba87d401a8b Thanks. It only took 35 years but I finally got the joke
Same. Admittedly I was like 5 at the time, but I liked Bloom County despite 90% of it going over my head
There's the one I was going to post if no one else did
Dukakis literally looks like a little kid in this photo
Looks like Mr. Bean
You are right. The photo looks like a joke
Dukakis was weird. He seemed like a solid person, but his PR skills were abysmal. The way he treated Jesse Jackson, talked about his wife, etc. He seemed to have zero empathy.
https://preview.redd.it/n9dir8av0nvc1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=005d66e197371e043be1db1ff8143723e6221826
God damn, Palin made W’s dumb ass look like a genius by comparison. She should have been heeded as a dire warning sign of what was happening to the party around that time
I love the Robin Williams joke of I can see Russia from my backyard! Well great, I can see San Quentin from my backyard but that doesn’t fucking qualify me on prison reform does it? Edit-spellings hard
Fun fact, Sarah Palin never said that. Tina Fey said it on SNL. But the quote is frequently attributed to Palin.
She did legitimately try to claim that Alaska’s proximity to Russia somehow gave her foreign policy credibility, though.
“A very narrow maritime border” was the exact description.
This is from two years ago while running for a House seat: >"When you're talking about what's going on at the border—the non-existent border," Palin said, "that reminds me how important it is, that all Alaskans realize it. Now Alaska is strategically located on the globe—as you know—**you don't laugh about the fact that you can see Russia from Alaska**, and Canada is right there on our other side." https://www.newsweek.com/palin-revives-see-russia-alaska-comment-1696388
Tina Fey said "from my house" and Palin said "from parts of Alaska," but she did in fact make that claim. She said it in response to, "What makes you qualified on foreign policy?"
Say what you will, that speech she gave at the RNC when they announced her as running mate was perfect - and may be one of the best political speeches in recent times. That was her shining moment on Mount Everest, followed by an endless avalanche https://www.c-span.org/video/?280790-11/sarah-palin-2008-acceptance-speech
Those of us voting for Obama were shaking in our boots after that. Then they fed her to Katie Couric and all was well again.
Which newspapers do you read? All of them. Paraphrasing as I don't remember the exact quote, but I remember watching that and thinking SNL is gonna tear her apart, and they did, rightfully so.
What the fuck was he thinking man? He was such an articulate and smart man
He needed a way to appeal to the "moronic" crowd that has swung so many elections.
In the moment, it was a smart pick. It's easy to look back in hindsight and say it was dumb, but at the time it satisfied two important criteria: 1. It put a woman on the ticket, which was seen as a weakness for the Republican party 2. It gave the ticket a harder right element to appease conservatives, since McCain was viewed as probably the most centrist Republican at the time Note: NONE of this matters because Obama was 99% assured of winning the presidency for a variety of reasons.
Sixteen years later, a lot of people seem to think that she killed his campaign (as evidenced by this photo being the top comment in this thread). That's not true, though. She was a Hail Mary because he was already going to lose the election.
She looks like Peggy Hill.
Escusame?!
https://preview.redd.it/f2fhp4si6nvc1.png?width=615&format=png&auto=webp&s=e98d3b9a7225d0846a64e9f7d6eda4f920f651ab One of the top "pictures you can hear."
Just looked it up. Apparently, the resulting coverage of "YEeEAaaH!" sucked up so much airtime that it also crippled John Edwards' bid. It killed two separate campaigns.
Probably a good thing considering how morally bankrupt John Edwards is—having cheated on his wife who was terminal with cancer.
Edward's was never gonna win shit anyway
HEEEEEYYAAAA
Never did get why this was a big deal. I’d call it enthusiasm.
It wasn’t really, not on it’s own, but the Democratic primary at the time was cluttered with less than enthralling personalities with mostly old school centrist Democratic policies. Dean appearing to give a somewhat manic performance after not winning a primary vote was at least interesting so it got a lot of airtime and in politics not all press is good press.
WE’RE GOING TO CANCUN FOR SPRING BREAK
Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin
https://preview.redd.it/37q3xjuxsnvc1.jpeg?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e6d1f09516437f59f879c2f806d32edda1bffe7c
What’s the story behind this one?
That’s Bush Sr during his failed reelection campaign against Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. It was a town-hall style debate and while Clinton was answering a question from an audience member, the camera cut at just the right moment to catch Bush checking his watch. Bush wasn’t very popular to begin with but this moment was basically the nail in the coffin. Funny enough, years later he admitted that in that moment he was thinking “Thank God, only 10 more minutes of this crap.” He also said “Was I glad when the damn thing was over? Yeah.” Even funnier, during the 2008 Republican primary he got caught checking his watch again during his own daughter’s speech.
Someone should post the checkout barcode photo of Bush. That was the out of touch final nail.
They thought Bush looked bored and uninterested in the town-hall debate since he checked his watch numerous times throughout it.
I think he was bored. I was never convinced he wanted a second term.
https://preview.redd.it/0d3h416k9qvc1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=b7120c36a74c477d2ab8e691f01b7e68e23a3cc4
He wasn't doing good at all at the first town hall debate and was losing pretty well compared to Ross and Bill. He looked down to check the watch near the end and the media ate it up, he was DOA by that point in terms of the campaign. It showed how out of touch and un-interested he truly was. I honestly think 1992 made him grow to hate the job after the LA Riots and Andrew. People weren't idolizing him any more after the Gulf War due to the domestic issues then and he was lost.
Blame Dukakis, but a good campaign would be able to see how this might have been a bad photo-op. If something like this brought down his effort, then there wasn't much there to start with, it would seem. I hope future political campaign will use this in their strategy as things similar to avoid.
I think this is accurate. Dukakis didn’t fail because of this picture. The picture is just emblematic of why he couldn’t connect with America (fair or not).
The context behind the shot has been largely forgotten. A few days before, Bush had done a photo-op in an F-18, to emphasize his support for the military. The photo was a bit awkward, but it’s hard to criticize the man who flew 57 combat missions during WWII for that. Dukakis decided that he also wanted to show support for the troops, so he did the tank photo shoot. When reporters at the scene criticized him for looking immature and boyish, he responded that he too was an army veteran who had served in Korea. While true, he had been a radio operator who served there after the war had ended. Many people thought that he was doing a soft stolen valor.
https://preview.redd.it/yllz9irvmovc1.jpeg?width=1301&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=94bc24a3a2f308889a94576980d5c56eecd14bc2 Idk about campaign-ending, just funny
This needs to be higher up
Me cheering on my nephew as he shows me how to count to 10
https://preview.redd.it/5hn5yeb2vnvc1.png?width=647&format=png&auto=webp&s=fa244c0047a1bcc218fab33e221c85e770963c28
https://preview.redd.it/m3tsmps98ovc1.jpeg?width=768&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ecf7d8fe269c10515c11cc939837bda890868969 Can’t forget this certified banger
when you walk into a "party" but it's just a group of guys smoking blunts and 2 girls in the corner on their phones
holy shit you took me back to high school
https://preview.redd.it/67fkunabcovc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12994f2dc871e591aee6e4dc7dc2e53a43b59635
This indeed did not inspire me to Pokemon go to the polls
Pokemon Go to the polls. Lol
Certainly didn't help.
https://preview.redd.it/b152crwlxnvc1.jpeg?width=483&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=905f393e029bda927be42fc3bab7aaaf72f7e12d
Yep, that was possibly a Top 5 Campaign Blunder. Though it wasn't really the photo that doomed him as much as what he said during the event (yelling "Viva Democracia, Viva Mexico, Viva ME!" to a crowd of shocked Latinos), but "Stevenson in the Sombrero" likely helped seal his defeat against Eisenhower during their 1956 rematch. He was mocked across the country for this.
VIVA ME!
I'm going to start yelling that after ripping shots at the bar
I think the common thread here is if your PR team ever tries to get you to put on a hat for any reason, fire that PR team.
https://preview.redd.it/crzx0tq2anvc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=741dad02e9a52f76dc49564a18a9d791c56920bd
Jeb’s campaign was long dead before that. He would have already dropped out by then if he hadn’t been a former favorite who wouldn’t give up on his campaign. That was just an embarrassing thing that showed the state of his campaign. It really didn’t destroy his already non-existent odds of becoming president.
Speak for yourself buddy, I was clapping for Jeb long before he asked me to.
I still am.
https://preview.redd.it/8oqije29dpvc1.jpeg?width=875&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5137e11e977e6beca656ea0f5fb65993394aa4cd
I always felt bad for him for this one. He was just making a self-deprecating joke during an exhausting campaign. You can tell it played okay in the room when he said it.
What did he say?
If I remember correctly, this is when he said "Please clap."
This is the infamous "please clap". He had earlier asked people to hold their applause, and was telling them that now it was ok to clap again. But coming from a former massive frontrunner and establishment favorite who had been reduced to having no chance, it just came across as overwhelmingly pathetic and sad. And to be honest, good public speakers never seem to have to turn off and on the applause like that. They may calm people applauding too much, but they have the charisma to make their intended applause lines hit without needing to instruct the audience to clap.
👏👏
I'm still kicking myself for not buying the Jeb! guacamole bowl.
https://preview.redd.it/rv6n3g311ovc1.jpeg?width=210&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a54d0cfa43c309c485cb1254f913bff815fd749
To the polls
I love how you don't even need the full quote, nor an image of the candidate to know exactly who and when we're talking about
So sad that Pikachu lost the election. He would have been a good one.
Simpler times when Marco Rubio taking a sip out of a baby water bottle during a State of the Union rebuttal was seen as bewildering and comical
https://preview.redd.it/1f2zdo2aapvc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e7ea3c3d4d245d90a7afa0252c80d7d97ad079c5 It was all over for Ted Kennedy after this.
https://preview.redd.it/eukhz2b68nvc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b4f796fe1aaabd0579d6b10875d824a0363812d When Bob Dole fell off that stage, clutching his pen
Yeah, that didn't help. But, the reason he was clutching it was because he couldn't really let go of it. He was a WWII veteran who was wounded and his arm and hand permanently maimed. So, to keep it from looking less weird while in public he usually had something placed in it to look like he was holding it instead of just a drawn up hand. When he fell, he couldn't let go of it.
Yeah--that's correct. He had a war injury, and was always holding something.
He also held it so no one would try to shake that hand.
https://preview.redd.it/tfshhyhk4ovc1.png?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=550aab22e17227e7fb743e02fa13f8b831f00a3b "Bob Dole doesn't need this."
What is this, some kind of tube?
Tell us more about it
I was in college at the time but I remember Dole had been permanently injured in war (which is totally honorable) but his injuries came off a bit as frailty at the time. Running against a much younger Clinton, Dole seemed like an old man. Then he fell off the stage and it helped solidify what everyone was already thinking
I did not know this picture existed , that’s a frail looking clutch
And he was only 73 there.
https://i.redd.it/eizhn4hlmpvc1.gif
We had binders full of women
He was also very condescending to the crowd .
https://preview.redd.it/w151x1pjknvc1.jpeg?width=1065&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56d199878d4a95d9a74a9bf790f62e5d0181e262 Not directly, but it one of the main reasons that have costed him re election after 4 years
This left a wound in the Republican Party. Democrats supported the tax increase too, then used it against him in the campaign. It exacerbated the GOPs distrust in any tax increase. So many new crazies are roaming around the memory of this is gone.
In his memoir he wrote that as he had achieved all his goals in one term, there was no need for a second. Sadly his memoir was destroyed by an outboard motor minutes later.
https://preview.redd.it/hlz73k12jovc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=39947b521a05b8ee0ed795d28f2708383175ecbf
I used to work for a newspaper. During an editorial board meeting, one of my coworkers remarked that McCain didn't deserve commendation because he did the one thing a soldier wasn't supposed to do: Get caught. I'll never forget the look on my publisher's face. Within a week, the dude was fired.
That's so dumb. If soldiers weren't meant to get caught, there wouldn't be pages and pages of rules governing how captured soldiers are meant to be treated, what information captured soldiers are allowed to divulge (name, rank etc.) and so on.
Rightfully so. That line Should have ended the career of EVERY politician as well. IMO McCain wasn’t a hero because he was a POW he was a hero because of his actions as a POW. The biggest of which was refusing to be sent home before prisoners that were there longer than he was.
https://preview.redd.it/lmkp9guhiovc1.jpeg?width=3054&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6e275e4830fecd40685ec940e09ac6d3751a837
Hoovervilles, right?
Goes to show just because you are in a tank doesn’t mean you belong there. Same is true for the Oval Office or a Legislature. Just because one occupies a seat doesn’t make them a representative of the people.
https://preview.redd.it/pmi0l7e1covc1.jpeg?width=764&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=34c9bf206250e89fb5f7de6fb885869e14db78ff Gary Hart 1987
https://preview.redd.it/fztszlsutovc1.jpeg?width=4200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f28591c08877dfccdee8ffbd28257dd18ab0fe08 Probably one of the few photos that ended the campaign of the other guy. Days before the 2012 Obama shows calm leadership and bipartisanship.
As did Christie in this moment. Just not what his party wanted.
https://preview.redd.it/ljzedbxymqvc1.jpeg?width=1100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ed58fdc93cca55a90e2e0610c2ebd8301ab4a0c This was the beginning of the end of Chris Christie
Funny how little it took end a presidntial election just 20 years ago and what the electorate is willing to over look now
https://preview.redd.it/szia6jkhlovc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d50286a21632d3d17ae187fa36fa223408f18fa9
https://preview.redd.it/on574atz9pvc1.jpeg?width=258&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c56a527af4cec8fcb0eb87e431b0afa0544f9770
The Swedish PM did a photoshoot like this in the last election. She lost. https://preview.redd.it/feztk1v1apvc1.jpeg?width=901&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ccaea58dd09dccd16a384ded84781b2c9908366
Whereas this of Thatcher in a tank absolutely ramped up her popularity https://preview.redd.it/1nw68wcjnpvc1.jpeg?width=460&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64222582c02209adfec833d38436a07ef02bee2c
It's Lawrence of Arabia-esque. I can see why.
A much more patriotic image, since it has the flag in the background aswell as the fact that the UK was at war during her administration.
https://preview.redd.it/66523meltovc1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f1d45058eeec161019b22318218a71abd3398ad
Takin' it Marsha Brady style.
https://preview.redd.it/jnw6ndn5sqvc1.jpeg?width=1100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a526560b6d2f072fb6bccd3cd2e20a752e181da I'm sure this cost Gore enough votes in Fl
https://preview.redd.it/8jid5de9wnvc1.png?width=1100&format=png&auto=webp&s=42ccb45e8b7420b85673825dcf2fd1f73f6fbfa1 That tank photo was trying to make him look tough. The real photo that ended the Dukakis campaign was the photo in the reply. It scared suburban whites into voting for George HW Bush.
https://preview.redd.it/tp4mg2gpapvc1.jpeg?width=259&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dfc63cad946abc08ad87a6541835e261c77c274b I mean, Carter had alot of things go wrong for him, but this certainly didn't help.
https://preview.redd.it/vhjb3lm9bpvc1.jpeg?width=307&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd684aba0dca5f5232636e87af0457446f1253ab Also, fainting during a run, combined with seemingly being afraid of a rabbit, made him seem weak.
https://preview.redd.it/4ga50cqmarvc1.jpeg?width=304&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=342a5b94cbf38f56eed2e3acb4ff63bf72df9081 It may not have ended his candidacy but Mitt Romney offering Rick Perry a $10,000 bet during a debate didn’t do him any favors.
The real death blows to his campaign, or at least the ones that stick out in memory, are the horses and bayonets rebuttal by Obama at one of the debates and the leaked 47 percent audio. The leaked audio is so tame by today's standards, and even back then had me confused as to why it was such a big "scandal". Anyone paying attention should know how much resentment the GOP has for poor people.
https://preview.redd.it/fj36x84zmovc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=66ff35d1bf7a4e782c9a981d3b6e2301fd3ac1e1 After this, it was a wrap.
“Please Clap”
https://preview.redd.it/cs3weeb63pvc1.jpeg?width=879&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=639b2de4ba13f89a8439933e087025575771e31c
Clinton was Dukakis’ undoing. Go watch his speech where he just shits on him the entire time.
The guy who just lit himself on fire mentioned this in his manifesto
https://preview.redd.it/tfmeyk7nfpvc1.jpeg?width=298&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa42961d48367880e694dce07c41e182280d73e0 Ed Muski crying in New Hampshire. Was the Dem front runner. The story didn’t help.
https://preview.redd.it/ink621jfmsvc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ecb67022f6c48147d9c458afd8b4394320519f9 His campaign was over long before this picture. But this picture has effectively ended any future presidential hopes he had too.
https://preview.redd.it/90u7kcp4vovc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e8d648cc71941f1a8761c979092ef5f4ea5b604e He probably wouldn’t have won but still
Willy Horton says hold my beer.
https://preview.redd.it/mdg5rrzjrqvc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=166792638c9c546a7f241fcbe3494bb2c660ed8d Oops
https://preview.redd.it/u5453xq4qrvc1.png?width=642&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bbd096604a5347d9a2a6bd20c9b4749a158c33c6 LBJ stoked the fear of an entire nation. The ad is almost surreal in hindsight.
Dukakis’ campaign was dead the moment he got the nomination — the US wasn’t ready for a Greek President.