Despite all that’s going on in our turbulent world, much of the current presidential campaign is based on age, but this isn’t the first time that’s happened.
In fact, the 1984 debates produced a zinger on the age issue that’s still considered one of the best campaign bon mots.
That came amid concerns about the capacity of 73-year-old incumbent Ronald Reagan, the oldest sitting president ever at that time.
Facing off against a 56-year-old Walter Mondale, Reagan scored when he declared, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”
Reagan also produced debate winners on other issues, especially against incumbent Jimmy Carter four years earlier, with his widely quoted “There you go again,” and his question to Americans, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?
Previous to his encounter with Reagan in ’84, Mondale had tossed a dart of his own against Sen. Gary Hart during that year’s primary campaign. When Hart said he had new ideas, Mondale reprised a Wendy’s hamburger ad and responded with an accusatory “Where’s the beef?”
There’s a knack to using debate one-liners effectively, and Reagan certainly had it – but you can go way back to Abraham Lincoln for other examples.
During the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, Stephen Douglas accused Lincoln of being “two-faced.” Responding, the craggy-visaged Lincoln asked, “I leave it to my audience. If I had another face, would I wear this one?”
Even across the pond in England, political drollery has its standouts. Listening to a member of Parliament drone on during a debate once, Winston Churchill began to nod off. The MP asked indignantly, “Must you fall asleep while I’m speaking?” Churchill replied, “No, it’s purely voluntary.”
Back here, a barb with lasting power came in the 1988 vice presidential debate between Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Republican Sen. Dan Quayle. After Quayle compared himself to John F. Kennedy, Bentsen famously delivered the haymaker “I knew Jack Kennedy… Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
Hillary Clinton came up with a good dig in 2016 when Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin had no respect for her.
She shot back, “That’s because he’d rather have a puppet as president.”
Democrat Andrew Yang went down the same path when in a primary debate that year he was asked, if he were elected over Trump, what he would say in his first phone call to Putin.
His reply: “I’m sorry I beat your guy…”
This reminds us of Trump’s initial response last month to the death (most believe Putin-ordered murder) of Russian opposition hero Alexei Navalny. Our ex-president demurred on directly condemning it, instead comparing it to how he, himself, feels oppressed by political enemies.
This conjures an imaginary but satisfying future debate in which Trump again asserts commonality with the courageous Russian, providing an opportunity for a tried-and-true response:
“Mr. Trump, you’re no Alexei Navalny.”
Gerry Goldstein (gerryg76@verizon.net), a frequent contributor, is a retired Providence Journal editor and columnist.
