Campaign Gaffes: Stumbles on the Trail

Hoping to firm up his national defense credentials after attacks from opponent George H. W. Bush, Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts visited a defense contractor for a photo-op. He was filmed riding around in a Challenger tank looking odd and out of place. The event became fodder for his rival’s ads, and “Dukakis in the Tank” became synonymous for a PR disaster.

Fighting accusations that he was out of touch following 11 years in the White House, George H. W. Bush visited a grocers’ convention in Florida for a shopping photo-op. Astounded by the scanner and signature security pad, Bush remarked that he was “amazed with the technology.” It was then pointed out that such scanners had been used in supermarkets since 1976.

John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign was rife with errors and gaffes. One of these inadvertently helped illustrate criticism that he was a “flip-flopper” on issues. A video of Kerry windsurfing became an attack ad sponsored by George W. Bush, laced with the obliterating punch line: “John Kerry: whichever way the wind blows.”

After suffering a third place finish in the Iowa primary, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean sought to rally the troops with a speech reminiscent of a high school coach at a pep rally. Energized by the crowd, Dean got louder and more passionate with every word, listing the states he would hit next, until he ended it all with a blistering, broken-voiced “YEAH!” Dubbed the “Dean Scream,” the clip was played endlessly on television, lampooned by comedians and remixed across the Web. Dean left center stage soon after.

No stranger to the political gaffe, Vice President Dan Quayle was an easy target of comedians and critics in the late 1980s, but no one event is as well remembered as the “Potatoe Incident” that preceded the 1992 election. Visiting an elementary school, Quayle told a student that his spelling of potato was wrong; it was missing a letter. The confused student followed his instructions and added an “e” to the end, to which Quayle responded, “Yeah, now you got it."

Early in his failed presidential campaign, Mitt Romney sought to establish himself with Republicans who had questioned his support of gun rights. Declaring that he’d been a lifelong hunter, Romney was then forced to backtrack and clarify that he had been a “rodent and rabbit hunter, small varmints, if you will” since the age of 15. The “varmint defense” became a punch line and further distanced him from the conservative support he needed.