Flashback: Presidential debates.
Presidential debates offer candidates a chance to match wits in real time in front of a live TV audience. They haven’t been around for quite as long as you might think.
1960
Debates: 4 VP debates: 0 The first-ever live TV presidential debate on Sept. 26, 1960, might also be the most famous:
Richard Nixon refused to wear makeup. His loss: John F.
Kennedy came off as healthier and more authoritative. Interestingly, radio listeners reported they felt the opposite.
1976
Debates: 3 VP debates: 1 A technical glitch forced both candidates to stand uncomfortably in front of TV cameras for 27 minutes. In their second debate, challenger Jimmy Carter pounced on President Gerald
Ford when he mistakenly declared there was “no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.”
1980
Debates: 2 VP debates: 0 President Jimmy Carter refused to include independent
John Anderson in the debates. As a result, Ronald Reagan debated Anderson once and Carter once. Reagan destroyed Carter with “There you go again” and “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
1984
Debates: 2 VP debates: 1 “I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” President
Ronald Reagan said. “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Even challenger Walter Mondale had to laugh. Reagan’s re-election was sealed with one quip.
1988
Debates: 2 VP debates: 1 When vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle compared himself to John F. Kennedy, his opponent, Lloyd
Bentsen, erupted: “I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
1992
Debates: 3 VP debates: 1 Four debates were held in a nine-day period. Organizers tried a new approach: a “town hall,” where audience members could ask questions themselves. Bill
Clinton displayed mastery of the format, easily topping President George H.W. Bush and independent Ross Perot.
1996
Debates: 2 VP debates: 1
Sen. Bob Dole attacked Bill Clinton for being “soft” on drug abuse and brought up Clinton’s admission he had smoked marijuana in his younger days. Clinton replied: “I know what it’s like to see somebody you love nearly lose their life” to drugs, referring to his own brother.
2000
Debates: 3 VP debates: 1 As George W. Bush made his case for himself in their first debate, Sen. Al Gore sighed heavily — repeatedly — into his microphone. Gore toned it down a bit in later debates, but the damage was done as Gore’s histronics were skewered on “Saturday Night Live.”
2004
Debates: 3 VP debates: 1 Issues? What issues? Much noise was made about a mysterious bulge under George W. Bush’s coat — which turned out to be a bulletproof vest, not a secret radio receiver — and John Kerry’s alleged use of contraband. Instead of cheat notes, Kerry had pulled out — gasp! — a pen.
2008
Debates: 3 VP debates: 1 Sen. John McCain proposed delaying the second debate in order to return to Washington to debate an economic bailout bill. Sen. Barack Obama declined and the debate was held on schedule. Congress defeated the measure and Obama defeated McCain.
2012
Debates: 3 VP debates: 1 The big loser in the first 2012 debate: moderator Jim Lehrer, who was criticized for letting both Barack Obama and Mitt
Romney exceed their time limits. Later, Romney lost points for claiming he had “binders full of women” qualified to serve in his administration.