Dan Quayle

James Danforth Quayle (born February 4, 1947) was the 44th Vice President of the United States under George H. W. Bush (1989-1993). In 2000, he was an unsuccessful candidate to win the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

Vice Presidency

In August 1988, at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, George H. W. Bush called on Quayle to be his running mate in the general election. This decision was criticized by many who felt that Quayle did not have enough experience to be president should something happen to Bush. Questions were raised about Quayle's apparent use of family connections to get into the Indiana National Guard and thus avoid possible combat service in the Vietnam War. Many in the media also portrayed him as a lightweight unable to handle the job. This came to a head in the 1988 vice-presidential debate, in which Quayle compared his experience to that of John Kennedy when he became president. Democratic candidate Lloyd Bentsen said in rebuttal, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." Quayle sheepishly responded, "That was uncalled for, Senator," in one of the defining moments of the 1988 campaign. Ads supporting Michael Dukakis and Bentsen showed a beeping heart monitor and an announcer saying, "Quayle: just a heartbeat away," with the implication that Quayle was not up to the job of the presidency should he have to assume it. The ads, however, seemed to have little effect. Although Republicans were trailing by up to 15 points in public opinion polls taken prior to the convention, the Bush/Quayle ticket went on to win the November election by a convincing 54-46 margin, sweeping 40 states and capturing 426 electoral votes. Quayle was the 44th Vice President of the United States from January 20, 1989, to January 20, 1993.

Related Topics:
1988 - 1988 Republican National Convention - New Orleans, Louisiana - George H. W. Bush - National Guard - Vietnam War - John Kennedy - Lloyd Bentsen - Rebuttal - Michael Dukakis - November election - January 20 - 1989 - 1993

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As Vice President, Quayle was the first chairman of the National Space Council, a space policy body reestablished by statute in 1988. On February 9, 1989, President Bush named Quayle head of the Council on Competitiveness.

Related Topics:
National Space Council - 1988 - Council on Competitiveness

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Throughout his time as Vice President, Quayle was widely ridiculed in the media and by some of the general public as a mental lightweight. One reason was that he sometimes made confused or garbled statements, although this tendency led to his being "credited" with apocryphal quotations. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/quayle.htm Some of the comments he actually did make have been attributed to other politicians, such as George W. Bush. He received the satirical Ig Nobel Prize for "demonstrating, better than anyone else, the need for science education" in 1991. Other critics facetiously remarked that he was a good reason for even Bush's critics to pray for his health and that he was only Vice President to make Bush "impeachment-proof". Most famous was his correcting a student's spelling of potato as potatoe at an elementary school spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey on June 15, 1992. Quayle was allegedly relying on a spelling-bee card on which the word had been misspelled by the teacher. The event became the single most memorable and lasting part of Quayle's career. It was widely lambasted by comedians and commentators, and purportedly demonstrated defective execution of official duties. The misspelling remains a source of intense criticism of Quayle's leadership abilities.

Related Topics:
Media - George W. Bush - Ig Nobel Prize - 1991 - Potato - Spelling bee - Trenton, New Jersey - June 15 - 1992 - Teacher

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On May 19, 1992 Quayle gave a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California on the subject of the Los Angeles riots. In this speech Quayle blamed the violence in L.A. on a decay of moral values and family structure in American society. In an aside, he specifically cited the fictional title character in the television program Murphy Brown as an example of how popular culture contributes to this "poverty of values", saying: "t doesn't help matters when primetime TV has Murphy Brown—a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid, professional woman—mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another 'lifestyle choice.'" Quayle drew a firestorm of criticism from feminist and liberal organizations and was widely ridiculed by late night talk show hosts for this remark. The "Murphy Brown speech" and the resulting media coverage damaged the Republican ticket in the 1992 presidential election and became one of the most memorable incidents of the 1992 campaign. In the 1992-93 season premiere of Murphy Brown, Brown, the character, watched Quayle's comments on television and responded on the show. In 2002, Candice Bergen, the actress, made the comment, "I never have really said much about the whole episode, which was endless, but his speech was a perfectly intelligent speech about fathers not being dispensable and nobody agreed with that more than I did."

Related Topics:
May 19 - 1992 - Commonwealth Club of California - Los Angeles riots - Television program - Murphy Brown - Candice Bergen

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During the 1992 election, Bush and Quayle were challenged in their bid for reelection by Democrats Gov. Bill Clinton and Sen. Al Gore. Quayle faced off against Gore in the vice-presidential debate, and, due in part to exceeding low expectations and staying on the offensive by tactics such as criticizing passages in Gore's book Earth in the Balance, Quayle was generally seen to have at least tied Gore, faring much better than he had against Bentsen four years earlier. (During planning negotiations for the upcoming televised debates, Vice-President Quayle's team insisted that he be able to hold a copy of Gore's book for dramatic effect -- the Gore team retorted that Gore ought to be able to hold up a potato.) Republicans were largely relieved and pleased, and Quayle's camp hailed his performance as an upset triumph against a veteran debater. However, it was ultimately a minor factor in the election, which Bush and Quayle went on to lose.

Related Topics:
1992 election - Bill Clinton - Al Gore - Earth in the Balance

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