Recent Presidential campaign gaffes

Although the election is still 16 months away, candidates are being watched/followed closer then ever, so they must be very careful not to make any mistakes.  Unless you are Donald Trump and are simply looking for any publicity (good or bad), most candidates tread cautiously during this period.  To that point, let's have a little fun and take a look back at some modern blunders that leading candidates made in their quest for the White House:

1.)  Micheal Dukakis in the tank - Dukakis was neck and neck with George Bush (Bush I) in 1998 until a series of attack ads and personal blunders did him in.  The biggest of these errors was riding in the tank, which most pundits said He looked like a little boy in a big helmet:

2.)  John Kerry - being in favor of the war before he was against it.  Under attack for changing his mind on important issues for political reasons, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry explained his switch on a funding bill. “I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it,” he declared. That one sentence came to define the Massachusetts senator in the minds of many swing voters. Republican National Convention attendees taunted Kerry by waving flip-flops on the Madison Square Garden convention floor. Republicans repeated the ad from coast to coast. Kerry came close but fell just short of unseating President George W. Bush.

3.  Howard Dean's scream:  During the 2004 Democratic primary, The one-time frontrunner’s campaign never recovered from his “yee-haw” moment the night of his defeat in the 2004 Iowa caucuses. The former Vermont governor got carried away while reciting a list of states he had targeted for victory. “The Scream” became The Story of the night. And the campaign.

4.)  Gary Hart's challenge to the media to follow him:  When rumors first began circulating in 1987 that Democratic presidential front runner Gary Hart was having affairs, he taunted the press. “Follow me around,” he challenged the media. “It will be boring.” Well, they did. And it wasn’t boring. The Miami Herald discovered a woman named Donna Rice. The famous National Enquirer photos on the good ship “Monkey Business” followed. And Hart — whose campaign buttons stated “My Heart Belongs to Gary” — ended up jilted by voters.

5.)  Al Gore inventing the Internet:  Vice President Al Gore was locked in a tough primary race against former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley when he spoke to CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. Ticking off his qualifications for president, he noted, “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” Gore indeed had been an early proponent of the Internet. But his misstatement became part of a damaging image of the Tennessee Democrat as a serial exaggerator.

 

 Of course, these blunders are just from recent campaigns, and we can expect many more in the months ahead with this many candidates all looking for attention.   Stay tuned for many more!