More Super Duper Political Bloopers

Oct. 13, 2000 — -- Cheer up, Al; don’t despair, George: You may have tripped over your tongues on the campaign trail. But there is political life after putting your foot in your mouth.

Last week The Wolf Files recounted some of Al Gore and George W. Bush’s most laughably regrettable moments and juxtaposed them with slips of the lip by Dan Quayle, George Bush the elder and Bill Clinton.

The Wolf Files recounted the younger Bush telling the folks of Nashua, N.H., “I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.” We pointed out that he once referred to a “peacekeeper” as a “pacemaker” and warned that America “cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile” rather than “hostage.”

We also pointed out that Gore once told an audience, “A zebra doesn’t change its spots.” And how he tried to flash a little Spanish before Latinos in Albuquerque, N.M., thanking them with the salutation “machismo gracias” — which translates into “manliness thanks” — rather than “muchas gracias.”

And then there’s that time after the Chicago Bulls won the 1998 NBA championship and Gore gushed, “I tell you that Michael Jackson is unbelievable, isn’t he? He’s just unbelievable.”

We also brought up Gore’s reputation for overstatement, how he’s told folks at times that he invented the Internet and that he and Tipper were the model couple for Love Story.

Can Americans accept such buffoonish moments from their future leaders? Simply put, yes. John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan weren’t stopped by their occasional bloops and blunders.

Of course, there are folks like Gary Hart and Gerald Ford, who probably wish they could press rewind and erase career-shortening bloopers.

Which group will Bush and Gore fall into? History will tell.

“Political campaigns probably do a better job now at capitalizing on their opponents’ mistakes. But every election I have looked at, you’ve had some incredible blunders,” says Christopher Cerf, who co-wrote The Experts Speak (Villard Books) with Victor Navasky of The Nation.

“Some people make the same mistakes over and over again and get away with it,” Cerf says. “Other people make the same mistake once and they are branded fools for life.”

JFK: ‘I Am a Pastry’

When Kennedy made perhaps the greatest speech of his life — a dramatic address at the Berlin Wall while Cold War fears were running high — he committed one of the great political bloopers of all time. He meant to show America’s commitment to Eastern Europeans. He meant to say “Ich bin Berliner,” which means “I am a citizen of Berlin.”

Instead, he botched his German, saying “Ich bin ein Berliner,” which translates into the affirmation “I am a cream-filled pastry.”

Ronald Reagan had a pretty high blooper rate, but that never seemed to bother him or his approval ratings. Speaking to business leaders in the White House East Room in 1985, Reagan said, “Nuclear war would be the greatest tragedy, I think, ever experienced by mankind in the history of mankind.”

Addressing a Republican Convention, Reagan tried to quote John Adams, who said, “Facts are stubborn things.” Reagan said, “Facts are stupid things.”

And sometimes Reagan just got lost in his own words. At a news conference in October 1987, here’s how Reagan answered a question about whether taxes should be increased:

“The problem is the deficit is — or should I say — wait a minute, the spending, I should say, of gross national product, forgive me — the spending, I should say, of gross national product, forgive me — the spending is roughly 23 to 24 percent. So that it is in — it what is increasing while the revenues are staying proportionately the same and what would be the proper amount they should, that we should be taking from the private sector.”

Still, Reagan left office as one of the most popular presidents in modern history.

“Sense of humor goes a long way,” Cerf says. “Al Gore might consider that. One wonders how much longer Nixon would have stayed in office, had he had a sense of humor about himself, not that I wanted that.”

Shot Through the Hart

Perhaps the all-time killer blooper belongs to Gary Hart. The former Colorado senator challenged reporters to back up rumors of his adulterous womanizing. “Follow me around. I don’t care,” he told reporters in May 1987, when he was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. “I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’ll be very bored.”

Reporters decided to take him up on it. On the very day Hart’s challenge was published in The New York Times, reports emerged linking him to actress-model Donna Rice. The National Enquirer put a nail in his political coffin by publishing a picture of the senator with a giddy smile and the young woman on his lap.

“She dropped into my lap,” Hart told Ted Koppel on Nightline several months later, after he withdrew from the race. “I was embarrassed. I chose not to drop her off, and the picture was taken. I was not on my watch. I let my guard down.”

Hart tried to revive his political career, yet he could never live down Donna Rice and his challenge to the media.

One could argue that Gerald Ford took a fatal hit in the 1976 presidential debates with Jimmy Carter. Ford assured voters, “There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.”

Ford, a former All-American football player at the University of Michigan, had a reputation in office for being a klutz. Newspapers often printed photos of him entangled in the leashes of his dogs or bumping his head on the door of his helicopter. One time, he even locked himself out of the White House and had to bang on the door until Secret Service agents let him in.

Chevy Chase virtually built a career imitating Ford on Saturday Night Live, and New York magazine once depicted the former president on a cover shot as Bozo the Clown. But the Eastern Europe remarks really followed him around.

“Keep a camera and a mike on anyone and you are guaranteed a blooper, it’s only a question of frequency,” says Bill Crawford, author of Republicans Do the Dumbest Things (Renaissance Books). “But there are some things the public doesn’t laugh off and there are times when a candidate’s silly slip-ups reach a critical mass.”

Years after he lost the 1976 presidential race, Ford considered a teaching post at his old alma mater. He told the press, “I’m not going to teach Eastern European history, however.”

Buck Wolf is a producer at ABCNEWS.com. The Wolf Files is a weekly feature of the U.S. Section. If you want to receive weekly notice when a new column is published, join the e-mail list.