The Lethal Humor of Ronald Reagan

On October 5, 1988, during the VP debate, Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D) protested Senator Dan Quail (R) comparing himself to John Kennedy. In a ploy to set himself up as older and wiser against young Senator Quail, he made the following remark.

Quail was never able to live that confrontation down, even though the Republicans won that year. Reagan would later put this criticism to rest – see below.*

One thing that Ronald Reagan had to endure during his 8 years as president as well as the 2 campaigns that elected him president, were the Democrats constant attempt to paint him as too old to serve.

There are 2 memorable clips of Reagan turning their “concern” into a joke and it completely disarmed them both times. The first was during the presidential debate with Mondale. The subject of Reagan’s age came up and this was his response. Notice even Mondale couldn’t help but laugh.

Then when Bill Clinton was running for president, there was some talk comparing him to the likes of Thomas Jefferson. Reaching back to the Bentsen/Quail debate*, Reagan said this at the 92 Republican convention.