Palin, Quayle and the Vice Presidential Debates

A lot of people, having witnessed the Presidential debates last night, seemed to be asking how much the debates really mattered. Neither candidate landed any decisive blows or dealt adequately with Jim Lehrer's questions about the economic crisis. Unless there are some dramatic missteps in remaining presidential debates, some believe that few minds will be changed; the candidates simply laid out their stump speeches on stage and got agitated with each other. However, there is a debate that could alter the balance of the election: the Vice Presidential debate.

I saw an interesting article comparing Sarah Palin and Dan Quayle yesterday. With the Vice-Presidential debate looming, and Sarah Palin playing a critical role in keeping McCain competitive, this campaign’s VP debates may prove one of the most crucial in US election history.

In many respects, the McCain-Obama campaign bears similarities to the 1988 Bush vs. Dukakis election. Dukakis was less politically experienced than Bush or Bentsen, and attacked for his far-left record in the House and as Governor of Massachusetts. To limit the “experience gap” between himself and sitting vice-president Bush, Dukakis picked Lloyd Bentsen, one of the most experienced politicians in Congress (and Bill Clinton’s first Secretary of the Treasury). George Bush retaliated by selecting Dan Quayle, the relatively unknown Junior Senator from Indiana, to secure electoral votes in the Rust Belt. Although trailing by more than fifteen points going into the RNC, Bush and Quayle received a major boost at the Convention, jumping into the lead against Dukakis.

As the campaign wore on, Dan Quayle became a major detriment to the campaign, misspeaking frequently (most notably in the infamous potatoe incident) and bungling a number of issues. Events in his personal life, such as his military service and a trip he had taken with a female lobbyist, came out to haunt the Bush ticket. He was parodied in the media as an “intellectual midget”. Fortunately for Bush, Dukakis made several mistakes, including a couple of seriously mishandled questions during the Presidential Debates. It was the Vice Presidential debate that seemed to be a major mismatch, however. Below is a clip from the Vice Presidential debate between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle (the famous part is towards the end):



The analogy does not seem to be particularly apt when one considers their differences. Biden has made almost as many gaffes as Quayle did, while Palin is much more attractive to the average voter because of her down-to-earth style. Palin was selected based on her ability to swing votes nationwide with her conservative record and her gender. With McCain trailing in the polls, Palin needs to be very impressive on October 2nd. If she avoids playing out the Dan Quayle stereotype that has been attached to her, she could prove the decisive factor in this election.