On October 1st, we’ll experience our 12th ever Vice Presidential debate when Ohio Senator J.D. Vance meets Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in New York City.
While VP debates are a frequent object of ridicule, history shows they draw a sizable TV audience; and thus have an appreciable effect not only on the rest of the campaign, but also on how voters view those candidates forever after. So let’s take this opportunity to dive into all eleven previous Vice Presidential debates and see what they can teach us.
October 15, 1976: Bob Dole vs Walter Mondale
TV Audience: 43.2 Million
After Watergate, the League of Women Voters sought to establish a regular tradition of Presidential debates and – perhaps inspired by the recent elevation of Vice Presidents Johnson and Ford to the Oval Office – decided to sponsor a Vice Presidential debate as well.
The first such contest featured two U.S. Senators familiar with one another, Bob Dole and Walter Mondale, and like many other future debates, this event was remembered primarily for one particular moment.
When asked about Ford’s pardon of Nixon, Dole instead went on a tangent about “Democrat wars”, pointing out that WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam were all started by Democratic Presidents.
“I figured up the other day, if we added up the killed and wounded in Democrat wars in this century, it’d be about one point six million Americans,” Sen. Dole continued.
Mondale immediately pounced on this opening, “I think Senator Dole has richly earned his reputation as a hatchet man tonight, by implying, and stating, that World War II and the Korean War were Democratic wars.”
The Minnesotan’s ‘hatchet man’ comment played well with the press, who already considered Dole an especially mean and sarcastic personality. Journalist Jules Witcover, for example, would in his 1976 campaign book compare Dole’s performance to Nixon’s 1962 Farewell Press Conference.
This ‘mean’ reputation would hang over Dole for the rest of the 1976 campaign and beyond. From that moment on, reporters and voters would respond negatively whenever Dole attacked his opponents: such as when he chided then-VP Bush in 1988 (“Stop lying about my record”) or in the sour final days of his 1996 Presidential campaign (“Where’s the outrage!?”).
So right from the beginning, we have proof that a Vice Presidential debate really can cement a public image.
October 11, 1984: George H.W. Bush vs Geraldine Ferraro
TV Audience: 56.7 Million
The VP debate in 1980 was cancelled when George H.W. Bush refused to show up. Four years later, though, he decided to participate in a historic confrontation with his counterpoint, New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro.
The most memorable moment of this debate occurred when Bush confronted his opponent on foreign policy. “Let me help you with the difference, Ms. Ferraro, between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon.” In her response, Ferraro sought to rebuke Bush.
“Let me just say, first of all, that I almost resent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude; that you have to teach me about foreign policy,” she shot back.
This back-and-forth was just one of several comments that fueled a gender-based battle around this debate. A few days prior, for instance, Barbara Bush expressed the desire to call Ferraro a name “that rhymes with rich”. On the day after the debate, George Bush rather clumsily told a rally “we tried to kick a little ass last night”. To top it all off, Bush’s Press Secretary described Ferraro as “bitchy”.
Unsurprisingly, polls found a significant gender gap among debate watchers, with male voters thinking Bush won while female voters believed Ferraro won. Altogether, however, a CBS/New York Times survey put Bush ahead 47% to 31%.
While the Reagan-Bush team went on to win easily in November, this conflict still seemed to stick to Bush. Around this time, Jane O’Reilly penned the cutting jibe “the great joke about George Bush is that he reminds every woman of her first husband”.
That quote would circulate among pundits for the rest of Bush’s political career, and Bush’s struggles with women would eventually contribute to his electoral demise in 1992.
October 5, 1988: Lloyd Bentsen vs. Dan Quayle
TV Audience: 46.9 Million
There’s only one Vice Presidential debate that can lay claim to earning a Seinfeld reference. After all, Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s comeback to fellow Senator Dan Quayle is likely the most famous moment in Vice Presidential debate history.
Quayle, a largely unknown 41 year-old, was George H.W. Bush’s surprise VP choice and needed to prove he was up to the task of potentially assuming the Presidency.
“I have far more experience than many others that sought the office of vice president of this country,” Quayle asserted. “I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency.”
On top of being factually inaccurate – Kennedy had 14 years of Congressional experience while Quayle had 12 years – Quayle’s contention was practically sacrilege to Democrats in 1988. So Bentsen’s subsequent zinger landed particularly hard.
“Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine,” Sen. Bentsen intoned. “Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy.”
After what the official transcript describes as “prolonged shouts and applause”, a clearly piqued Quayle countered by upbraiding his senior colleague “That was really uncalled for, Senator.” Only for Bentsen to spit back, “You’re the one that was making the comparison, Senator.”
Apparently, Bentsen’s famous put-down was actually partly inspired by Teddy Kennedy. After Quayle used the Kennedy line on the stump beforehand, Democratic operative Bob Shrum was so offended that he wanted Senator Kennedy to respond. Teddy, however, felt it would be better if Bentsen addressed it in the debate. So Shrum and then-Congressman Dennis Eckart prodded Bentsen in debate prep, and urged him to repeat his reaction if Quayle used the line in the debate.
Afterward, the Dukakis team was so elated with Bentsen’s performance that they turned it into a TV ad, although the moment ultimately did not change the race. Nevertheless, the moment hung over Quayle for his entire tenure as Vice President, as he was never again taken seriously.
October 13, 1992: Al Gore vs Dan Quayle vs James Stockdale
TV Audience: 51.2 Million
In 1992 Ross Perot crashed the gates of American politics, and as part of that effort, he wanted an unconventional Vice Presidential nominee. Unfortunately for Perot, his outside-the-box pick – Ret. Vice Admiral James Stockdale – would go on to deliver one of the worst performances in the history of political debates.
“Who am I? Why am I here?” Stockdale began, earning a laugh by audibly asking the obvious questions. His opening statement soon went downhill, however, as Stockdale struggled to describe his time as a P.O.W. during the Vietnam War.
The oft-expressed desire to hear a politician talk like a regular person was fulfilled by Stockdale on this night, although it made for a considerably awkward viewing experience. Stockdale spoke haltingly, constantly fidgeting with either his glasses or his pen. At one point, he even complained that his hearing aid was off and therefore he hadn’t heard the question.
Moreover, since Stockdale suffered knee problems due to his war experience, he tried to stretch his legs by wandering from his podium. This caused utter panic in the TV control room. “He’s going for a walk!”, one network producer lamented. “I don’t know if anyone can suggest something be done — he’s got bad legs from the war, and he’s going to fall down!”
Most of the post-debate press commentary actually breezed over Stockdale’s troubles, perhaps in sympathy to his wartime service. Saturday Night Live, however, responded with a blistering cold open with Phil Hartman imitating Stockdale. Punctuating Dana Carvey’s Ross Perot with unrelated quotes from the debate (“Ping-Pong Match!”, “Gridlock!”, “I’m out of ammo!”); the sketch involved Perot treating Stockdale like a misbehaving dog, driving him into the countryside and leaving him out there.
Stockdale would actually remain a comedic punchline for years, with one episode of the 90s cult classic The Critic featuring Perot singing “I didn’t win a single state/Blame it on my running mate”.
As for Quayle, he was deputized as the attack dog assigned to take shots at Bill Clinton. Encouraged by his wife, he constantly used the phrase “pulling a Clinton” to describe a lie or evasion and even poked fun at Gore by invoking a well-known Clinton phrase: “Take a breath, Al. Inhale.”
Gore wasted no time reminding Quayle of four years prior, “I’ll make you a deal this evening; if you don’t try to compare George Bush to Harry Truman, I won’t compare you to Jack Kennedy.”
Post-debate polls judged Gore the winner and Clinton was initially jubilant over his performance. Yet as some of the pundits began to wonder whether Gore insufficiently defended Clinton from Quayle’s attacks, Bill and Hillary began to deeply resent what they now saw as Gore shirking his duty. In the years to come, the tensions between these three would only grow and peak during the 2000 campaign.
October 9, 1996: Al Gore vs. Jack Kemp
TV Audience: 26.6 Million
To this day, the 1996 VP debate remains the least-watched in history, which is a bit surprising since this confrontation was advertised as a potential preview of the 2000 Presidential election.
Gore brought back a version of his opening joke from four years ago, “I’d like to start by offering you a deal, Jack. If you won’t use any football stories, I won’t tell any of my warm and humorous stories about chlorofluorocarbon abatement.”
Meanwhile, Kemp’s first question was about right-wing frustration with the Republican ticket for refusing to hit President Clinton harder on ethics issues. The former HUD Secretary passed on the opportunity, explaining that “Bob Dole and myself do not see Al Gore and Bill Clinton as our enemy. We see them as our opponents. In my opinion, it is beneath Bob Dole to go after anyone personally.”
As a result, pundits tended to judge Gore the winner, with conservative columnist Robert Novak reporting that “the immediate private reaction by important Republican power brokers was that Kemp had talked his way out of the party’s nomination to oppose Democratic heir apparent Gore in 2000.”
In fact, by 1998 commentators were already talking about Kemp as an also-ran in the 2000 race, and Kemp eventually decided to pass on the contest and retire from politics. Conversely, Gore’s performance – in which he made sure to repeatedly praise Clinton this time – settled his status as the clear Democratic front-runner for 2000.
October 5, 2000: Dick Cheney vs. Joe Lieberman
TV Audience: 28.5 Million
This particular debate proved, in retrospect, to be full of ironies. First off, both Cheney and Lieberman would one day turn their backs on their party; as Lieberman would endorse his friend John McCain in 2008, while Cheney is supporting his daughter’s crusade against Donald Trump in 2024.
On top of that, in this debate Cheney actually criticized the Clinton-Gore Administration for their overseas adventurism.
“There may be occasion when it’s appropriate to use [U.S. armed forces] in a peacekeeping role, but I think the role ought to be limited, there ought to be a time limit on it,” Cheney said before, years later, fighting against any kind of timetable on withdrawing from Iraq.
Speaking of Iraq, Sen. Lieberman foreshadowed his hawkish stance by making clear that he already supported removing Saddam Hussein, especially if there were fears that he was developing “weapons of mass destruction.”
The stand-out moment, however, came when moderator Bernard Shaw asked whether LGBT Americans were entitled to full Constitutional rights.
“This is a tough one, Bernie,” Cheney conceded. “The fact of the matter is we live in a free society, and freedom means freedom for everybody. We don’t get to choose, and we shouldn’t be able to choose and say you get to live free and you don’t. That means people should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into. It’s no one’s business in terms of regulating behavior in that regard.”
Cheney’s stance, no doubt influenced by his lesbian daughter Mary, won praise from LGBT groups and got him in hot water with conservatives for distancing himself from the rest of the party.
Nonetheless, Cheney won his encounter with Lieberman, with one ABC News poll finding 43% of watchers felt he won the debate while just 24% thought Lieberman won.
Years later, Lieberman’s speechwriter Paul Orzulak explained how Cheney outfoxed his Democratic opponent. Apparently, before the broadcast started, Cheney turned to Lieberman and contended that while his staff wanted him to go negative, he was determined to have a positive debate. This convinced the moralistic Lieberman to shelve all his attack lines, and led to Cheney dominating the debate.
October 5, 2004: Dick Cheney vs. John Edwards
TV Audience: 43.5 Million
Four years later, the TV audience was growing as incumbent VP Dick Cheney squared off with Senator John Edwards. Perhaps they were attracted by all the fighting, as Cheney’s second debate was much more contentious than his first.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of the night came when Cheney attacked Edwards for missing Senate votes.
“In my capacity as Vice President, I am the president of the Senate, the presiding officer. I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.”
Of course, Cheney’s claim was untrue. Footage soon emerged of Cheney and Edwards sitting next to each other during a 2001 Prayer Breakfast, and others stepped forward to say that the two had met at least two other times.
At another point, Cheney was asked about his comments in the first debate and how they squared with the Bush Administration’s push to pass a Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage. The VP, cautious of again creating distance from his ticket-mate, stood behind the White House. Moreover, after John Kerry mentioned Cheney’s daughter in a subsequent debate, the Cheney family painted the comment as some sort of cruel political trick.
Ultimately, Cheney’s gambits worked out as a plurality of debate watchers judged him the winner. The perception that Cheney got the better of him hung over Edwards’ 2008 campaign, although the North Carolinian ultimately managed to self-destruct on his own.
October 2, 2008: Joe Biden vs. Sarah Palin
TV Audience: 69.9 Million
Fun Fact: The 2008 Vice Presidential Debate scored higher TV ratings than any of the three Obama-McCain Presidential debates. The culprit here was obviously Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who blazed across American politics and culture in the fall of 2008 before quickly burning out. In fact, that process was already beginning when she faced off against then-Senator Joe Biden.
Since the only frame of reference for politicos and pundits was the aforementioned 1984 showdown between Bush and Ferraro, the conventional wisdom was that Biden had to make sure not to condescend to Palin. As a result, Biden hung back for the most part, focusing on McCain and not getting drawn into any 1-on-1 fights with Palin.
Arguably the most notable moment came when Biden choked up talking about the 1972 car accident that killed his first wife and daughter, as well as injuring his two sons.
“The notion that somehow, because I’m a man, I don’t know what it’s like to raise two kids alone, I don’t know what it’s like to have a child you’re not sure is gonna, is gonna make it,” Biden tearfully explained.
This would be the first – but not the last – mention of Hunter Biden during a general election debate.
As for Palin, in what might be a bit of a surprise, most of the commentary was fairly positive; with pundits noting that she appeared to bounce back after her infamous interview struggles. The CNN post-debate poll, however, found viewers thought Biden won by a healthy 51% to 36% margin.
Instead the lasting impression of the night came a few days later, courtesy of Saturday Night Live.
“Hey, can I call you Joe?” alum Tina Fey began by mimicking Palin’s opening. “OK, because I practiced a couple of zingers where I call you Joe.” Later on, Fey revealed a flute and inquired “Oh, are we not doing the talent portion?”
Within a few years Palin would leave electoral politics, and the right-wing conflagration she started would move towards Donald Trump instead. Meanwhile, this debate provided Joe Biden with a helpful reintroduction to the American people.
October 11, 2012: Joe Biden vs. Paul Ryan
TV Audience: 51.4 Million
Four years later, the nation saw a much more energized Joe Biden. In the wake of President Obama’s poor first debate performance; Biden’s task this time was to be as proactive as possible, to hit Rep. Ryan repeatedly, and to get Democratic voters fired up again.
As a result, Biden was on offense throughout the contest, even birthing one of his catchphrases early on when he interjected “that’s a bunch of malarkey.” As hard as it may be to believe, there were actually several mentions of malarkey on this night.
“This is a bunch of stuff!,” Biden contended a few minutes later.
“What does that mean, ‘a bunch of stuff’?” moderator Martha Raddatz queried.
“It’s Irish,” Ryan interjected.
“It is. We Irish call it malarkey,” Biden explained.
This VP debate even featured a call-back to a previous VP debate between an experienced Democrat and a young Republican. During a back-and-forth about tax cuts, Ryan invoked JFK.
“Jack Kennedy lowered tax rates, increased growth,” Ryan claimed.
“Oh, now you’re Jack Kennedy!” Biden responded, seeing an opening to invoke Bentsen’s line and even earning a knowing laugh from Paul Ryan.
In terms of post-debate polls, Biden won two out of three, with CBS (50% to 31%) and Reuters (42% to 35%) showing him ahead while CNN found Ryan out in front (48% to 44%). Culturally, Biden’s hyper performance crystallized the Onion/SNL view of him as an rambunctious Uncle. On the other hand, Ryan was pilloried for the amount of times he drank from his glass of water during the debate.
It could be argued that Ryan’s failure to best Biden in this debate, as well as the Romney-Ryan ticket’s inability to beat Obama and Biden that November, led the GOP to turn to Donald Trump. Ironically, Trump’s blistering style would eventually push Ryan out of politics, while Biden would be the one to ultimately replace Trump in 2020.
October 4, 2016: Tim Kaine vs. Mike Pence
TV Audience: 36 Million
The first 2016 Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump attracted a record audience of 84 million TV viewers. Yet this Vice Presidential debate didn’t draw half of that audience.
In some sense, Tim Kaine was overshadowed by Joe Biden in this contest. Several pundits negatively compared the Virginian’s aggressive, energetic performance to Biden’s 2012 showing. Against the stubbornly soft-spoken Mike Pence, however, that approach seemed to backfire.
While Kaine sought to attack Trump as much as possible, Pence refused to be boxed in, at times even lying about past statements made by Trump and himself. Take, for just one example, Pence’s answer when Kaine mentioned a past remark about Putin and Obama.
“This is one where you can just kinda go to the tape on it,” Kaine contended. “Governor Pence said inarguably, Vladimir Putin is a better leader than President Obama.”
“That is absolutely inaccurate,” Pence replied, despite the fact that he had indeed said that.
Nevertheless, while Pence’s repeated habit of shaking his head as Kaine recited Trump’s positions drove progressives insane on social media, it seemed to work with the viewing audience.
A CNN post-debate poll found a narrow plurality of debate watchers, 48% to 42%, felt that Pence won the battle. In a sense, though, it was a bit of pyrrhic victory for Pence as much of the commentary focused on him not defending Trump enough. Furthermore, there were reports that Trump was upset that Pence won his debate while Trump lost all of his.
That rift between Pence and Trump over Pence’s own political future would of course prove pivotal during the January 6th insurrection. Meanwhile, Kaine’s debate performance seemed to extinguish whatever national political aspirations he might’ve held, as after Trump’s 2016 upset, Kaine decided to simply stay in the Senate.
October 7, 2020: Kamala Harris vs. Mike Pence
TV Audience: 57.9 Million
Three times a female VP nominee has walked onto a debate stage, and those three debates just so happen to also be the three highest-rated of all-time.
This particular confrontation took place in the midst of the COVID pandemic, right after Donald Trump was hospitalized with COVID, so it was far and away the most socially distant debate ever.
Actually, that previous Presidential debate hung over this match-up in more ways than one, as Trump’s non-stop interruptions of Joe Biden forced the Harris team to prepare for the possibility of Pence intruding.
As a result, three separate times throughout this contest Harris admonished Pence for interrupting with the soon-to-be-memed response, “I’m speaking”.
Speaking of memes, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the fly. About an hour and ten minutes into the debate, a fly landed on Mike Pence’s head, starkly standing out amidst his white hair. For just over two minutes, as Twitter cycled through every joke imaginable, the fly remained immobile, a symbol of an increasingly moribund candidacy.
To that point, the post-debate CNN poll found 59% of viewers believed Harris won the debate, against just 38% who thought Pence won. In retrospect, Harris’ stellar performance in her first debate with Trump was foreshadowed by her victory over Pence four years prior. As for the Indiana native, his 2024 primary campaign against his former ticket mate never got off the ground.
So, as you can see, history proves the Vice Presidential debate is a consequential – and dare I say, entertaining – event in every campaign cycle. Therefore, you clearly won’t want to miss it when Senator Vance and Governor Walz meet at 9:00 pm EST on October 1st!