Posted on 08/02/2004 5:44:30 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
I believe that, like entertainment, political campaigns have Jump The Shark moments where you can trace the decline of a candidate's chances. For Gerald Ford in 1976, it was when he said Eastern Europe wasn't under Soviet domination. For Richard Nixon in 1960, it was when he showed up at the first debate with JFK without makeup to hide the thick shadow of his beard.
Perhaps the most famous political Jump the Shark moment was in 1988 when Michael Dukakis, in a double digit lead over George Bush, appeared atop a tank wearing a tanker's helmet that made him look like Snoopy. Arguably there were two other possible Jump the Shark moments in the Dukakis campaign. One was his emotionless response to a question about what he would do if his wife were raped. And a much less known Jump the Shark moment was when Dukakis appeared in public while power walking. There is absolutely NO dorkier exercise that power walking. You walk while wildly swinging weights in both hands. The net effect is to make the power walker look like the ultimate nerd.
So what is John Kerry's Jump the Shark moment? It must have already happened since he got a NEGATIVE bounce in the polls coming out of the Democrat convention. Was it when he wore that Sperm Cell outfit at NASA? Or perhaps that wimpy pitch at the Red Sox game where he was later booed? Or was it his overlong convention speech? Please give your ideas on John Kerry's Jump the Shark moment.
He jumped the shark when he became the front runner for the nomination.
Third Purple Heart.
Thanks y'all!
From Happy Days when the Fonz jumped the shark tank on his motorcycle.
That kind of thinking is "a little unhealthy" at this point!
That's going to scream off the podium.
Not quite -- Fonzi was water-skiing and jumped a shark.
No, silly, The Fonz jumped the shark on water skis.
For me, the moment was months and months ago, when Effin' rode his motorcycle onto the set of the Jay Leno show.
I thought to myself "whattadork!", and haven't been proved wrong at any moment since then.
Happy Days was never the same. It descended into a mish mash of stupid situations.
That is what meant by jump the shark!
For Dukakis: rape question. People were floored by his coldness on that one.
I remember when Clinton was running in 1992 and SNL spoofed the debates, with Phil Hartman as Clinton.
Hartman is asked: "Governor Clinton, whta would you do if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered."
He responds jovially: "While no one wants to see Kitty Dukakis raped and murdered, if she were, I would hope that it would be in Arkansas where we have one of the toughest death penalty statutes in America!"
I think it happened when he was sweating while addressing the nation. Good grief, couldn't they have had an air fan in there or cranked up the A/C? It didn't make him look all that presidential. Not that the speech helped either - it sucked. But first impressions are everything cause its hard to change someone's view of you later.
Oh, you mean when the REST of the country saw him jump the shark. Gotta be that hamster story, or the idiotic "reporting for duty"...
It was his awful acceptance speech, begun with that hokey, badly-executed salute, and replete with a too-rapid delivery of empty platitudes and an abundance of flop-sweat. That was quite a trifecta!
In his leather jacket...
Right after the Munsters was cancelled.
It was when he uttered, "It's none of your business" to a question about which world leaders supported him.....
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