Democratic candidates get a pass, because the media assumes they are brilliant. Remember in 2000 how George W. Bush was given a "pop quiz" asking him to identify the leaders of 4 nations (one of them not even an independent country but a rebellious province in Russia)--because he knew only one or two of them, he was widely ridiculed. I mean, there are only 190+ independent countries and maybe a dozen or two would-be independent countries, so how hard can it be to have the current leaders' names at your fingertips?
Of course Gore wasn't subjected to that quiz.