“I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” - Ronald Reagan (1984 debate with Walter Mondale)
> “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” <
If you take a look at a clip of that, you can see Mondale smiling in the background. Mondale was Reagan’s opponent, but he still appreciated the joke. How I miss those days, when Democrats were pretty much normal. A bit to the left, but still decent people.
For those not in the know, here’s the clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJhCjMfRndk
That line, at a debate, totally nuked all the “Reagan is too old” garbage the media was spewing. Mondale, himself, cracked up laughing over it. Excellently timed.
I remember that well, just about the only thing I liked about Mondale was how he laughed at that remark even though he was the butt of Reagan’s joke.