Five most memorable moments from vice presidential debates

The eight vice presidential debates held over the past 36 years have had minimal impact on the final election results. Arguably, only one — Republican Dick Cheney’s strong performance against Democrat Joe Lieberman in 2000 — significantly shifted the polls. But this year’s encounter between Vice President Joe Biden and GOP congressman Paul Ryan at Centre College, site of the Cheney-Lieberman debate twelve years ago, has taken on added significance because of President Obama’s low-energy effort in last week’s first presidential debate.

“This debate has the potential to either continue Romney’s momentum or derail it,” says Steven E. Schier, a political scientist at Carleton College. “It is a significant event in the campaign, particularly if either vice presidential candidate stumbles badly.”

If one candidate stumbles, it won’t be the first time. Here’s a glimpse at some of the stumbles, bumbles and shining moments in previous VP debates.

1. Lloyd Bentsen tells Dan Quayle he’s no Jack Kennedy.

Lloyd Bentsen was elected to Congress from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley in 1950 and served alongside another young lawmaker with higher ambitions, Massachusetts Rep. John F. Kennedy. Flash forward to 1988: Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle repeatedly invoked Kennedy’s name and youthful image. At the debate in Omaha, the 41-year-old Indiana senator declared that he had as much legislative experience as Kennedy when JFK was elected president in 1960. Bentsen raised his eyebrows at Quayle’s assertion — and was prepared with a devastating rejoinder. Quayle’s “deer in the headlights” look only exacerbated the damage. Quayle never recovered politically, but the debate had little impact on George Bush’s comfortable win over Bentsen’s running mate, Michael Dukakis.

2. Admiral Stockdale gets lost in space.

Quayle’s second debate performance was overshadowed not by his Democratic rival, Al Gore, but by the running mate of third-party contender Ross Perot. Retired Admiral James Stockdale, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, wondered aloud, “Who am I? Why am I here?” Stockdale later said he couldn’t hear a question because his hearing aid was not turned on. These unscripted moments defined Stockdale (unfairly) as old and out of touch.

3. Bob Dole decries “Democrat wars.”

Jimmy Carter’s big early lead over incumbent Republican Gerald Ford had dissipated by the time Democrat Walter Mondale faced off with Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, who had replaced Nelson Rockefeller on the 1976 GOP ticket. Dole was a wounded veteran of World War II, but his acerbic assertion that all American military conflicts of the twentieth century were “Democrat wars” came as a shock to vets who blamed Hitler, the Kaiser and Kim Il-Sung, among others, not FDR, Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman.

4. Barbara Bush says Geraldine Ferraro is a (rhymes with witch).

Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 became the first woman nominated for vice president by a major American party. In her only debate with incumbent Vice President George Bush, she was substantive and aggressive. A little too aggressive for Bush’s wife Barbara. During the debate, the vice president at one point said during a foreign policy exchange, “let me help you.” Ferraro retorted that she resented “your patronizing attitude.” After the debate, the nation’s second lady made headlines when she declared that the New York congresswoman was a “rhymes with witch.”

5. John Edwards reminds us that Dick Cheney has a gay daughter.

The award for gratuitous mention of an irrelevant fact goes to 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards. In his debate with Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, Edwards praised the family values of the Cheney family and their willingness “to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter.” The bizarre comment didn’t have much to do with anything and earned bipartisan condemnation. Mary Cheney, in a book published two years later, called Edwards a “total slime” and accused him of trying to use her sexual orientation as a political weapon against the Bush-Cheney ticket.

Bonus: Here is a video with four minutes, 45 seconds of hilarious VP debate highlights. Enjoy…