tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/gaffe-20503/articlesGaffe – The Conversation2020-10-06T12:18:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1467262020-10-06T12:18:30Z2020-10-06T12:18:30ZVP debates are often forgettable – but Dan Quayle never recovered from his 1988 debate mistake<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360939/original/file-20200930-22-122jpzo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4504%2C2969&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, left, had something to celebrate after the 1988 vice presidential debate. Quayle not so much.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/following-their-vice-presidential-debate-senators-lloyd-news-photo/515429068?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you think that vice presidential debates – like the one on Oct. 7 between Vice President Mike Pence and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/12/politics/kamala-harris-mike-pence-debate/index.html">U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris</a> – have no political impact, I have two words for you:
Dan Quayle. </p>
<p>After George H.W. Bush selected the little-known 41-year-old Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate, the youthful-looking Quayle <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-debate-quayle-bentsen-20161004-snap-story.html">tried to deflect concerns about his age and inexperience</a> by comparing himself to John F. Kennedy, who also had served as a congressman and senator before running for president in 1960. </p>
<p>Quayle’s handlers told him <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-debate-quayle-bentsen-20161004-snap-story.html">not to bring up the comparison</a> during his only debate with the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Lloyd Bentsen. Unlike Quayle, Kennedy was a war hero during World War II, had won a Pulitzer Prize <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-F-Kennedy/Congressman-and-senator">and had a national reputation</a> when he entered the presidential race.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, when on Oct. 5, 1988, debate moderator Tom Brokaw questioned whether Quayle was qualified to be vice president, Quayle answered, “I have as much experience … as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency.” </p>
<p>Bentsen, a longtime Texas senator, was prepared. </p>
<p>“Senator,” he famously drawled. “I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mind. Senator, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYdHeCAsfVo">you’re no Jack Kennedy</a>.”</p>
<p>Quayle’s expression is frozen in time, the chastened look of a boy sent to his room. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yHtlbZpZUSs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The mic drop moment of the 1988 vice presidential debate.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A cautionary tale</h2>
<p>The Bentsen-Quayle exchange, which features prominently in my new book, “<a href="https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/the-art-of-the-political-putdown">The Art of the Political Putdown</a>,” remains perhaps the most famous moment in the history of American political debates.</p>
<p>The Bentsen-Quayle debate was <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-10-06-mn-4515-story.html">viewed by 50 million people</a> in 1988. The Kennedy bit is still available online, billed as the “<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/lloyd-bentsens-mic-drop-moment-1988-vp-debate-58255800">Lloyd Bentsen’s mic drop moment</a>.” That clip will no doubt be discussed and viewed before the Pence-Harris debate, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYAZkczhdMs">as it is every four years</a>.</p>
<p>The disastrous debate moment didn’t actually hurt Bush, who easily beat out Michael Dukakis. But it dogged Quayle, who during Bush’s term was the <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1991-05-08-1991128115-story.html">punchline of many jokes</a>. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts told one that went, “The Secret Service is under orders that if President Bush is shot, they are to shoot Dan Quayle, too.” </p>
<p>Quayle’s legacy is the cautionary tale of how he let himself be defined by that debate mistake.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360938/original/file-20200930-16-xgutfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bush and a youthful Quayle stand at a lectern in dark suits with red ties" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360938/original/file-20200930-16-xgutfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360938/original/file-20200930-16-xgutfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360938/original/file-20200930-16-xgutfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360938/original/file-20200930-16-xgutfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360938/original/file-20200930-16-xgutfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360938/original/file-20200930-16-xgutfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360938/original/file-20200930-16-xgutfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bush and Quayle at the 1988 Republican National Convention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vice-president-george-bush-and-senator-dan-quayle-speak-at-news-photo/612578798?adppopup=true">Shepard Sherbell/CORBIS SABA/Corbis via Getty Image</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Quayle never recovered</h2>
<p>One of the lessons of the Quayle-Bentsen exchange is listen to your advisers. Quayle did not. <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/01/17/the-mother-of-all-put-downs?context=amp">Bentsen did</a>.</p>
<p>Secondly, Quayle made the worst of a bad moment on national television. He could have restricted the damage of Bentsen’s comeback with self-deprecating humor – like President Ronald Reagan once did. </p>
<p>When Doonesbury comic strip artist Garry Trudeau wrote a strip that took readers on a tour of President Reagan’s brain and found only marbles, Reagan responded by saying, “Cartoonists occupy a special place in my heart. I hope Garry Trudeau will remember that. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/doonesbury/strip/faq?page=22">It’s heart, Garry, not brain, heart</a>.”</p>
<p>When Doonesbury poked fun of Quayle, however, Quayle complained. </p>
<p>“It’s well known that <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=TO83xrkMPPkC&pg=PT2&lpg=PT2&dq=%22garry+trudeau+has+a+personal+vendetta+against+me.%22&source=bl&ots=M-YQEtpZwz&sig=ACfU3U1kGM2Um2fgiDNqRHUaHMgJtyNmYA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiUnO2umv3rAhVFaM0KHYRmCCsQ6AEwAXoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22garry%20trudeau%20has%20a%20personal%20vendetta%20against%20me.%22&f=false">Garry Trudeau has a personal vendetta</a> against me,” he said. </p>
<p>Late-night comedian Johnny Carson <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616700701504666?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=rjos20">then joked</a>, “That’s the way to get through to Quayle – make fun of him on the comics page.”</p>
<p>When Bush ran for reelection in 1992, Quayle said he was going to be the campaign’s “pit bull” against Democrat Bill Clinton. When asked about this, Clinton laughed and said, “<a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90337494#:%7E:text=During%20one%20of%20the%20Lincoln,Lincoln%20%22two%2Dfaced.%22&text=When%20Clinton%20was%20asked%20for,fire%20hydrant%20in%20America%20worried.%22">That’s got every fire hydrant</a> in America worried.” </p>
<h2>You say ‘potato,’ he says ‘potatoe’</h2>
<p>Quayle himself perpetuated his reputation as a dour lightweight. </p>
<p>In 1992 he attacked <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/arts/television/murphy-brown-dan-quayle.html">television character</a> Murphy Brown, an unmarried news anchor, for having a child out of wedlock. </p>
<p>In response, late-night comic David Letterman looked straight into the camera and told Quayle to pay attention. “I’m only going to say this once. Murphy Brown <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1345&dat=19920527&id=XFlYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-vkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6872,3919175">is a fictional character</a>!”</p>
<p>Then, in June 1992, during a trip to an elementary school, Quayle corrected a 12-year-old boy who had correctly spelled “potato,” adding an “e” to the word. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/06/21/why-quayles-potatoe-gaffe-wont-fade/b7eecf20-d43f-4781-ab46-9a865df08b58/">American comedians</a> had a field day. </p>
<p>“Maybe the vice president should quit watching ‘Murphy Brown’ and start watching ‘Sesame Street,” joked the late-night TV host Jay Leno. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>“It was more than a gaffe,” Quayle wrote of the p-o-t-a-t-o-e moment in his <a href="http://www.capitalcentury.com/1992.html">1994 memoir</a>, “Standing Firm.” “It was a ‘defining moment’ of the worst imaginable kind. I can’t overstate how discouraging and exasperating the whole event was.” </p>
<p>Quayle thought the incident got so much play because “it seemed like <a href="http://www.capitalcentury.com/1992.html">a perfect illustration</a> of what people thought about me.” </p>
<p>Dan Quayle was a one-term vice president whose greatest contribution to politics came in a VP debate. In the dog-eat-dog world of politics, no politician since has wanted to end up on the Quayle end of the fire hydrant.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146726/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Lamb does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A saucy, perfectly delivered retort by Democratic vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen didn’t hurt the Bush-Quayle ticket. But it dogged Dan Quayle for the rest of his political career.Chris Lamb, Professor of Journalism, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1301522020-01-18T13:34:25Z2020-01-18T13:34:25ZBill de Blasio’s bagel gaffe and the fraught politics of food<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310712/original/file-20200117-118343-14dnjw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C10%2C2344%2C1846&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oh no he didn't.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/toasted-bagel-royalty-free-image/982874472">secret agent mike/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio hadn’t already dropped out of the 2020 presidential race, #bagelgate might have been the nail in the coffin. </p>
<p>His Jan. 15 tweet praising a toasted bagel on National Bagel Day instantly set off hardline bagel devotees-cum-voters. De Blasio <a href="https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1217530245672325123">quickly amended his tweet</a> to delete the word “toasted.” But the damage was already done. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2020/01/15/bill-de-blasios-hot-take-on-toasted-bagels-turns-out-to-be-lukewarm-and-wrong/">Purists scorned the very idea of toasting a bagel</a>, calling into question his bona fides as a New Yorker.</p>
<p>The outrage over bagel protocol may seem silly. But few acts are as personal as eating, and food is closely intertwined with place and culture.</p>
<p>For a politician, food might seem like a low-hanging fruit. Is there an easier way to appeal to the masses? Everyone, after all, eats.</p>
<p>But when politicians wade into local food customs, they do so at their own risk. <a href="https://history.iastate.edu/directory/stacy-cordery/">My research</a> on presidents and first ladies suggests that uninformed assumptions about food often get candidates and elected officials in trouble.</p>
<p>Bill de Blasio isn’t the first politician to run afoul of food norms and face the wrath of voters. And he certainly won’t be the last.</p>
<h2>Culinary campaign calamities</h2>
<p>Most political wannabes try hard to bridge the gap between their wealthy backgrounds and the rest of us. It rarely works.</p>
<p>During the 1976 presidential campaign, incumbent president Gerald Ford, before the eyes of bewildered Texans, peeled back the aluminum foil – but not the corn husk – and took a giant bite out of a tamale. Ford never lived it down. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ezkvxk/how-a-plate-of-tamales-may-have-crushed-gerald-fords-1976-presidential-campaign">According to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee</a>, “The Great Tamale Incident” sealed Ford’s loss to Jimmy Carter in the Lone Star State.</p>
<p>In 2003, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry unwittingly broke food norms <a href="https://www.phillymag.com/foobooz/2018/09/22/john-kerry-cheesesteak-philadelphia/">when he ordered</a> Swiss cheese for his Philly cheese steak instead of Cheese Whiz. Nine years later, Republican Mitt Romney <a href="https://www.grubstreet.com/2012/06/romney-orders-a-sub-in-hoagie-country.html">asked for</a> a “sub” in Pennsylvania, where, as locals will tell you, they call them hoagies. And Romney again made himself an easy target for mockery in 2019, when the millionaire businessman <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/386219-romney-mocked-for-saying-hot-dog-is-his-favorite-meat/">claimed his favorite type of meat</a> was a hot dog.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310691/original/file-20200117-118323-16708fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310691/original/file-20200117-118323-16708fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310691/original/file-20200117-118323-16708fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310691/original/file-20200117-118323-16708fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310691/original/file-20200117-118323-16708fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310691/original/file-20200117-118323-16708fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310691/original/file-20200117-118323-16708fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just a regular American guy grilling regular American food.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mitt-romney-l-the-republican-presidential-hopeful-and-news-photo/593352876">Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pizza is treacherous terrain: Republicans Donald Trump, Sarah Palin and John Kasich have all faced withering criticism <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/john-kasich-pizza-knife-fork-donald-trump-bill-de-blasio-448338">for eating pizza with a fork</a>. Bill de Blasio <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/forkgate-bill-de-blasio-pizza-fork-and-knife-new-york_n_4577126">made the same mistake</a>, too, in what was dubbed “forkgate.”</p>
<p>But no food has a greater potential for campaign catastrophe than the corn dog. The optics of state fair corn dog consumption are never good. The web is full of wince-worthy photos of <a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Bachmann-2012/24de81bd98484559a8d2c96625a71b96/5/0">Michele Bachmann</a>, Rick Perry and <a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Election-2020-Bernie-Sanders/fa3f03097b594a7dafdd8ea240b50849/2/0">Bernie Sanders</a> all struggling to maintain their dignity while biting into a battered, oversized wiener popsicle. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310698/original/file-20200117-118327-5xyt04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310698/original/file-20200117-118327-5xyt04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310698/original/file-20200117-118327-5xyt04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310698/original/file-20200117-118327-5xyt04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310698/original/file-20200117-118327-5xyt04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310698/original/file-20200117-118327-5xyt04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310698/original/file-20200117-118327-5xyt04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rick Perry dives in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Perry-2012/c40a9463e09c4af58db48c02072d0aa4/3/0">AP Photo/Charles Dharapak</a></span>
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<p>Better to be <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-st-cory-booker-could-be-first-vegan-president-20190201-story.html">a vegan like Cory Booker</a> – and avoid them altogether – than be seen on the wrong side of the corn dog. That may be one rule that a majority of voters can agree on.</p>
<h2>You’re out of touch…</h2>
<p>Other politicians are either unaware – or don’t care – about their elitism. </p>
<p>In 1972, the beer-swilling, working-class regulars in a Youngstown, Ohio bar cringed when Democratic vice presidential candidate Sargent Shriver <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/sargent-shriver-founding-director-of-peace-corps-dies-at-95/2011/01/18/ABqGTSR_story.html">hollered</a>, “Make mine a Courvoisier!”</p>
<p>In 1988, Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis <a href="https://apnews.com/4d16b5f492dbc41ff8bb18a5486d6520">suggested to debt-ridden Iowa farmers</a> that they grow <a href="https://www.kitchenstories.com/en/stories/everything-you-need-to-know-about-cooking-and-shopping-for-in-season-endive">Belgian endive</a>, a bitter, leafy green seldom found outside of gourmet restaurants. Almost 20 years later, fellow Democrat Barack Obama told those same farmers <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/8/20/374027/-">that arugula might bring in more profits</a> than corn and soybeans. </p>
<p>Obama also made the mistake of asking for Dijon mustard – and no ketchup – for his cheeseburger. Fox News host Sean Hannity let him have it, calling him “<a href="https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/video/2009/05/07/media-20090507-dijon.jpg">President Poupon</a>.” </p>
<p>The producers of an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4-vEwD_7Hk">infamous 2004 attack ad</a> damned Democratic presidential aspirant Howard Dean for his elitism. Not surprisingly, food played a role. </p>
<p>Dean, the ad sneered, was a “latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K4-vEwD_7Hk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In an infamous ad, the Club for Growth derides Howard Dean as a ‘sushi-eating…left-wing freak show.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These gastronomic tales show how the semiotics of what and how we eat matter profoundly to millions of people. </p>
<p>On the one hand, to transgress is to risk looking inauthentic, disrespectful or foolish – none of which is sound politics.</p>
<p>On the other hand, unabashedly embracing the latest health food trends can get a politician ridiculed as elitist and out of touch.</p>
<p>Perhaps the best outcome is simply to win. A president can indulge in guilty gastronomic pleasures. Ronald Reagan <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2011/02/president-reagans-jelly-beans-048915">loved his jelly beans</a>, George H.W. Bush <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/07/garden/suddenly-pork-rinds-are-classy-crunch.html">couldn’t put down his pork rinds</a> and Bill Clinton, until his heart surgeries, was irresistibly drawn to McDonald’s. </p>
<p>For political candidates, however, a shrewd understanding of American eating habits is the recommended minimum daily requirement on the campaign trail.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stacy A. Cordery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Food might seem like an easy way to appeal to the masses. But when politicians wade into local food customs, they do so at their own risk.Stacy A. Cordery, Professor of History, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/477272015-09-18T04:35:07Z2015-09-18T04:35:07ZMugabe takes the cake when it comes to gaffes – but he’s not alone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95210/original/image-20150917-7507-1sx76un.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Robert Mugabe on the day the 91-year-old president read out the wrong speech at the opening of parliament.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whose line is it anyway?</p>
<p>I remember coming back to South Africa from my first overseas trip to Europe in 1999. We were beginning our second semester of teaching in English Studies at the university at the time and I was scheduled to teach a few lectures on a Shakespearean play, King Lear. </p>
<p>Once I began my lecture I noticed that the class was unsettled, but I disciplined them sternly with an admonishment to be quiet and to take notes as we went along. </p>
<p>At the end of the series of lectures a student confided in me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sir, you have taught the wrong play. You already taught us this one last year!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Needless to say, I was acutely embarrassed.</p>
<p>Well, I am sure that this is not the first time that it has happened to academics at university. When one is on a public stage the eyes of critics are always looking for something interesting to pounce on. </p>
<h2>Master of wrong speeches</h2>
<p>Much like the incident involving Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who read the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/mugabe-delivers-wrong-speech-zimbabwe-parliament-150915145708602.html">wrong speech</a> at the opening of parliament. He spent almost half an hour delivering the same State of the Nation address he had read a month earlier. </p>
<p>Although he did <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34268040">correct the mistake</a> a day later, he still had to endure a number of calls for his resignation as reported by the <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/robert-mugabe-reads-out-wrong-6449342">Daily Mirror</a>. It appears that he had also made a sizeable blunder toward the end of last year when he shouted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/16/africa/zimbabwe-robert-mugabe-mistake-social-media/">Down with Zanu PF!</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>As most people know, this is the political party to which he belongs. </p>
<p>Mugabe is no novice when it comes to reading wrong speeches. A <a href="http://alexmagaisa.com/the-presidents-wrong-speech/">few years ago</a> he began to read a speech but then realised it was not the version of the speech he had intended to read. </p>
<p>Mugabe reportedly <a href="http://alexmagaisa.com/the-presidents-wrong-speech/">stated</a> in December last year that Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition, “had won the March 2008 elections by 73%”.</p>
<h2>In good company</h2>
<p>This situation reminds one of the incident in 2011 when the then-Indian foreign minister, SM Krishna, began to deliver a speech he had never seen before to a gathering of the UN Security Council. </p>
<p>He was, in fact, reading the speech of the Portuguese foreign minister, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/indian-foreign-minister-gives-wrong-speech-to-the-un-2215080.html">Luis Amado</a>. Krishna carried on reading the speech for some three minutes before he was interrupted by an Indian official next to him who corrected the mistake. </p>
<p>In 2010 Krishna reportedly <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/indian-foreign-minister-gives-wrong-speech-to-the-un-2215080.html">read out</a> background material that had been prepared to assist him during a meeting in Islamabad. Similarly, at a meeting in Delhi, while addressing EU delegates, he read from instructions meant for him personally, and not the delegates.</p>
<p>In some memorable occasions, other politicians also got it wrong, notably Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator who denies the effects of <a href="http://www.livescience.com/22640-politicians-science-wrong.html">global warming</a>. In 2012 he was quoted as saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The dangers of carbon dioxide? Tell that to a plant, how dangerous carbon dioxide is.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Plants do need carbon dioxide to photosynthesise, but an overdose of carbon dioxide actually reduces their ability to do so.</p>
<h2>Whose line is it anyway?</h2>
<p>Be it as it may, in the end it is the journalists who are having a field day with “mix-ups” like these. It reminds me of one of the episodes from <a href="http://www.tv.com/shows/whose-line-is-it-anyway/">Whose Line Is It Anyway?</a> where <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0339352/?ref_=tt_trv_qu">Kathryn Greenwood</a> (clueless teenage girl on the phone to her friends), comments: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>So like I got this job doing like the news or something, and like, what is that anyway? Like politics or wars or something? I just wanna chill, and y'know sometimes I just wish I was a goat y'know? How easy would life be then y'know, you wouldn’t even have to read things or understand things or … hey, why’s everybody staring at me?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Are you serious? </p>
<p>Well, as leaders, when we make mistakes we prove that we are human too, and not infallible. But when voters go to the voting stations to make their mark they do so with serious intent. They are serious about their future, and hope that this is reciprocated and that their political leaders will take their responsibilities seriously. </p>
<p>In addition, there could be millions, or billions, at stake. Leaders have the eyes of investors and markets on them, scrutinising their every statement and action with a view about what investments to make or not to make. Gaffes can prompt them to move their investments elsewhere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47727/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pieter Nagel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Robert Mugabe is no novice when it comes to reading wrong speeches. But he is in good company.Pieter Nagel, Lecturer in Communications Studies, University of LimpopoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.