1988 VP Debate
Lloyd Bentson, “Senator , you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
Quayle, “You mean I’m not an adultering, fall-asleep-in-my PT boat dipstick who screwed up Cuba and Vietnam? Thanks!”
The only problem with that retort is that it was Quayle who first invoked/compared himself to JFK when the issue of his age/experience was questioned.
I wish Quayle were that quick-witted. Despite the fact that he was totally railroaded by the media in terms of his intelligence, and despite the fact that he was probably more intelligent than 50% (at least) of the US Senate, he just wasn’t that quick-witted.
And you know why? Because he had the instincts of a RINO. He didn’t always vote like a RINO but he had the instincts of a RINO. The instinct to go-along to get-along that so typified the GHW Bush White House, and an instinct that is death to quick-wittedness.