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src="/web/20081219161321im_/http://encarta.msn.com/othermedia/Features/PopCultured_nbrdr_sml_435x97.jpg" width="435" height="97" alt="Pop Cultured" border="0"></div><div class="ArticleTitle">Debate Greats</div> <div><span class="ByLine"><b>Political Zingers and How They Work</b><br><br>By <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/columns/?page=marthahome">Martha Brockenbrough</a></span></div> <div class="Section"> <div class="SectionBody">The perfect comeback: Who hasn't thought of one, but just a little too late? It's beyond frustrating. So, when people do it well -- especially in nationally televised debates -- it's all the more remarkable.<br><br>The unlikely king of zing was the late <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761560259/Reagan_Ronald_W(ilson).html" target="_blank">Ronald Reagan</a>. For a man who was supposedly an intellectual lightweight, he was a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861699922/rejoinder.html" target="_blank">rejoinder</a> genius.<br><br>Take what he said to <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566991/Carter_Jimmy.html" target="_blank">Jimmy Carter</a> in their Oct. 28, 1980, election-eve matchup. President Carter went on the offensive about Reagan's opposition to Medicare.<br><br>"There you go again," Reagan said. <br><br>With that burst of exasperation, he shut down discussion. It didn't matter that Carter was speaking the truth. (As president, Reagan would cut Medicare by $35.9 billion between 1981 and 1987.) Truth simply wasn't as effective as technique. <br><br>It wasn't even a scripted response, Reagan later told journalist Jim Lehrer. "It just seemed to be the thing to say in what he was saying up there," Reagan said, "because it was to me it felt kind of repetitious, something we had heard before."<br><br> </div> </div> <div class="Section"> <div class="SectionTitle">Lesson No. 1: Put them on the defensive</div> <div class="SectionBody">This is the first lesson, then, in delivering the perfect comeback. You don't need to be correct or analytical. You can undermine your opponent, and even the truth itself, by changing their offense into defense. Imagine trying it on a cheating spouse.<br/> <br/> "There was more lipstick on your collar and it's not my shade."<br/> <br/> "Oh, there you go again. Don't you believe I love you?"<br/> <br/> And with that, the aggrieved wife is in the wrong -- she's not only repetitive, she's doubting her loving husband. Shame on her. Also, ouch. Please don't try this one at home.<br/> <br/> </div> </div> <div class="Section"> <div class="InlineModule_R" style="width:165;"><div class="Module_5"><div class="Body_5"><b>Does your child need a tutor? <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/homework/default.aspx?page=Tutoring"><br>Learn more.</a></b></div> </div> </div> <div class="SectionTitle">This brings us to Lesson No. 2: Keep it simple</div> <div class="SectionBody">That 1980 debate was the same one in which Reagan delivered another of his famous lines: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"<br><br>It's surprising that none of the current presidential candidates have co-opted this question -- it's incredibly effective during tough economic times. <br><br>It's also brilliant as a fact-dodge. Certainly the nation's woes aren't all the fault of any one president and his or her policies. Many things can influence an economy. But the president does make a great scapegoat, and if you can pin all the blame on the incumbent in 10 little words, that's a pretty darned effective use of rhetoric.<br><br>The secret of this one is its simplicity. It's a lot like the sign campaign strategist James Carville hung in <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761564341/Clinton_Bill.html" target="_blank">Bill Clinton's</a> office: IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID.<br><br>Driving his point home <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861726533/pithy.html" target="_self"target="_blank"">pithily</a> is exactly what Jimmy Carter <i>didn't</i> do. Instead, he said, "I think to close out this discussion, it would be better to put into perspective what we're talking about. I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought nuclear weaponry -- and the control of nuclear arms."<br><br>Zzzzz. Oh, sorry; I drifted off there. He lost me at "discussion" and "perspective." And did he just say "nookyoolar"? <br><br>Now, had Jimmy Carter said something forceful like, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," things might have been different. That sure seems like it would be an effective line, doesn't it? Moving on ...<br><br> </div> </div> <div class="Section"> <div class="SectionTitle">Lesson No. 3: Know your enemy's strength and make it a weakness </div> <div class="SectionBody">Before Vice President <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578255/Quayle_Dan.html" target="_blank">Dan Quayle</a> became famous for misspelling <i>potato,</i> many people compared him to <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761576731/Kennedy_John_Fitzgerald.html" target="_blank">John F. Kennedy</a> in youth and Congressional experience.<br/> <br/> So, when Quayle made the comparison himself in a 1988 debate, his opponent, <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569368/Bentsen_Lloyd_Millard_Jr_.html" target="_blank">Lloyd Bentsen</a>, was ready. He said, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." Zing!<br/> <br/> Quayle was flushed from his bush, and Bentsen came out looking seasoned, sincere and vice presidential. It almost doesn't matter that his ticket didn't win. Quayle never regained his footing.<br/> <br/> </div> </div> <div class="Section"> <div class="InlineModule_R" style="width:165;"><div class="Module_5"><div class="Title_5">Want More Martha? </div> <div class="Body_5"><a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/author_marthahome/Columns_by_Martha_Brockenbrough.html ">Read more columns by Martha Brockenbrough.</a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="SectionTitle">Lesson No. 4: Stay on the offensive</div> <div class="SectionBody">President Reagan bested <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761558594/Mondale_Walter_F(rederick).html" target="_blank">Walter Mondale</a> in a campaign debate on Oct. 21, 1984, in front of 67 million TV viewers by taking a perceived weakness and turning it into a strength. <br/> <br/> Mondale's campaign had suggested Reagan was too old for the job. Instead of defending himself, whining about age discrimination or releasing medical reports, Reagan reframed the debate on his own terms, and with a big dash of humor:<br/> <br/> "I will not, for political purposes, exploit my opponent's youth and inexperience." <br/> <br/> Game, set, match, Reagan.<br/> <br/> </div> </div> <div class="Section"> <div class="SectionTitle">Lesson No. 5: Be funny</div> <div class="SectionBody">Reagan's vice president and successor <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571000/Bush_George_Herbert_Walker.html" target="_blank">George H.W. Bush</a> also had a gift of humor that helped in a Sept. 25, 1988, presidential debate against <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761559302/Dukakis_Michael_Stanley.html" target="_blank">Governor Michael Dukakis</a>.<br><br>Bush, who was mushy on the issues, got the best line of the night in when he said about the tense exchange, "I'd hoped this would be a little friendlier -- I wanted to thumb a ride home in his tank."<br><br>The tank he was referring to, of course, was the one in which Dukakis posed for a campaign shot and ended up looking less than presidential, especially compared with Bush's war-hero photos. Zing!<br><br>Even <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761553525/Gore_Al.html" target="_blank">Al Gore</a>, so often accused of being wooden, got off a funny line during a 1996 vice presidential debate with <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_762508872/Kemp_Jack_Francis.html" target="_blank">Jack Kemp</a>: "I'd like to start by offering you a deal, Jack. If you won't use any football stories, I won't tell any of my warm and humorous stories about chlorofluorocarbon abatement."<br><br>Give that man a Nobel Prize!<br><br> </div> </div> <div class="Section"> <div class="SectionTitle">Lesson No. 6: What not to do</div> <div class="SectionBody">Poor Dukakis. Not only was he reminded of the embarrassing tank photo, he also flubbed a key answer in an Oct. 13, 1988, debate. Moderator Bernard Shaw asked Dukakis if he thought he'd reverse his opposition to the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, were raped and murdered.<br/> <br/> Instead of pulling a Reagan and turning the question around to make Shaw look bad, Dukakis said, "No, I don't." Critics said this made him look cold, and it's worth remembering when someone asks you an outrageous question that you don't have to answer it.<br/> <br/> But what's worse than answering a bad question is asking one, like <a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555236/Perot_H(enry)_Ross.html" target="_blank">Ross Perot's</a> running mate, Admiral James Stockdale, did in an Oct. 31, 1992, vice presidential debate: "Who am I? Why am I here? I'm not a politician -- everybody knows that." <br/> <br/> Whatever the opposite of zing is (zang?), he demonstrated it. And for Perot and Stockdale, there was no comeback, rhetorically or politically, after that.<br/> <br/> </div> <div class="InlineModule_LR" style="width:100%;"><div class="Module_2"><div class="Title_2">Related Links</div> <div class="Body_2"> </div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" class="BulletItem"><tr><td valign="top" class="DeptBullet"></td><td valign="top" class="BulletItem_2"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761560259/Ronald_Reagan.html ">What was Ronald Reagan's first career?</a></td></tr></table> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" class="BulletItem"><tr><td valign="top" class="DeptBullet"></td><td valign="top" class="BulletItem_2"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566991/Jimmy_Carter.html#s1">What choice words did Jimmy Carter have for federal bureaucracy?</a></td></tr></table> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" class="BulletItem"><tr><td valign="top" class="DeptBullet"></td><td valign="top" class="BulletItem_2"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578255/Quayle_Dan.html">More about Dan Quayle</a></td></tr></table> </div> </div> </div> <div class="Section"> <div class="InlineModule_LR" style="width:100%;"><div class="Module_3"><div class="Title_3">About the Author</div> <div class="Body_3"><a href="/web/20081219161321/http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/columns/?page=marthahome">Martha Brockenbrough</a> lives, writes and plays in Seattle. She is the author of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081219161321/http://shopping.msn.com/content/featured-book-things-that-make-us-sic/ctid4835/?contenttext=contentname:featured-book-things-that-make-us-sic&ptnrid=8&ptnrdata=24910">"Things That Make Us [Sic],"</a> a guide to amusing bad grammar. 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