Biden's Verbal Gaffe Adds to a Long History of Presidential Campaign Blunders

Vice President Joe Biden created a stir when he told supporters in Virginia on Tuesday that the policies of the Republican Party would "put y'all back in chains." Republican nominee Mitt Romney called Biden's comment "angry and desperate." Meanwhile, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani questioned Biden's fitness to serve as vice president saying that "he's just not very smart."

Of course verbal gaffes are about as common on the campaign trail as candidates kissing babies. Here are just a few interesting miscues from past presidential campaigns:

* During his acceptance speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, Walter Mondale famously told the nation that ''Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did.'' While Mondale felt that his honesty would endear him to the American people the reality was quite different. Reagan clobbered him in one of the largest landslide victories in presidential election history.

* In March 1992, the front-runner for the Democratic Party's nomination, Bill Clinton, told a television audience that while he was in England as a Rhoades Scholar he "experimented with marijuana a time or two, and didn't like it." Clinton then went on to say that he "didn't inhale and didn't try it again." While his brief dalliance with marijuana seemingly did little harm to his candidacy, the Arkansas governor was heavily mocked for years after for claimed not to have inhaled. He got the last laugh, however, winning two terms as the nation's 42nd president.

* In March 2004 the eventual Democratic Party's nominee for the November election, John Kerry, told a West Virginia audience that he actually did vote for the $87 million before he voted against it. The Massachusetts senator was referring his vote in congress against a supplemental appropriation supporting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. George W. Bush's campaign seized on this gaffe and used it to help brand the Democrat as a "flip-flopper." Kerry could never overcome this reputation and lost the close election to Bush.

* While it is challenging to choose just one verbal gaffe by Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign perhaps the most damaging was during an interview with former CBS News anchor Katie Couric. In a discussion about her foreign policy experience, the clearly unprepared Alaskan governor was asked about her state's proximity to Russia. Palin's nearly incoherent response was legendary: "As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state." Mocked incessantly after the interview aired in September 2008 -- particularly by Tina Fey -- Palin's rambling response became a lynchpin in the argument against her readiness to take on the job of vice president.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bidens-verbal-gaffe-adds-long-history-presidential-campaign-171900244.html

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