Top 10 political TV debate moments

Messrs Brown, Cameron and Clegg would do well to learn the lessons of past heroes and victims of this unpredictable medium. Check out our list of the famous TV debates and their protagonists, featuring fireworks between Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s dodgy dossier on the wife of his opponent Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Gerald Ford vs. Jimmy Carter | October 1976 In the first US presidential debate since the celebrated 1960 debate between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon, Gerald R Ford made one of the biggest blunders in the event’s history. In response to a question about foreign policy and the Soviet Union, Ford said:

There is no Soviet domination of eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.

His jaw-dropping answer prompted a follow-up question, and Ford tried to redeem himself by saying he had meant his administration did not recognise the Soviet sphere of influence in the region. Despite attempts to salvage his position, Ford’s remark handed the debate win to Carter on a silver platter and went on to haunt his campaign. Jimmy Carter vs. Ronald Reagan | October 1980 The US presidential debate between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter was memorable in more ways than one. But the moment that sticks in most minds is Reagan’s response to Carter’s attack on his opposition to Medicare and social security benefits while Reagan was serving as governor of California.The Republican candidate chuckled and tossed Carter the one-liner, “There you go again.” While Carter’s argument was not a bad one (it was quite relevant, in fact), it was Reagan’s curt response that entered folklore. Another moment in the debate that remains etched in history also came from Reagan. He faced the camera and asked the American people:

Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than it was [sic] four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was four years ago? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we’re as strong as were were four years ago?

Bluntly posing questions that attacked Carter’s record, Reagan gave Americans a simple choice. In this week’s New Statesman magazine, Dominick Sandbrook delves deeper into the Reagan/Carter debate — and what the British candidates can learn from it. Jean-Marie Le Pen on L’heure de vérité | February 1984 Le Pen, whose Front National (FN) party asks for tighter restrictions on immigration and opposes abortion, appeared on the programme L’heure de Vérité — essentially the French version of Question Time, with a similar audience question format — in 1984. The appearance was credited with the substantial increase in votes for the FN during the European elections in June that year and a dramatic rise in favourable opinions of Le Pen, according to the opinion polls. He would come second in the French presidential race in 2002. President Jacques Chirac refused to hold a televised debate with Le Pen in the second round of that election because of his extremist views. This year, a French journalists’ union demanded that a live television debate featuring Le Pen’s daughter Marine, who has become the vice-president of the FN, be cancelled, saying that her appearance would be a disgrace and would publicise the far right. Malcolm Bruce pushes Gordon Brown | April 1997 Despite all the recent allegations of bullying, it was Gordon Brown that received a push from the Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce back in April 1997. Bruce could not get a word past the then shadow chancellor in a taxation debate with Chancellor Kenneth Clarke and the host Jon Snow, and resorted to shoving the future prime minister. Brown laughs off the push and gives his now infamous smile. Sarah Palin vs. Joe Biden | October 2008 In one of the most hotly anticipated events of the 2008 US presidential election, the Democratic nominee for vice-president, Joe Biden, met with his Republican counterpart, Sarah Palin, to talk economics, climate change and Iraq. It was a particularly important debate for Palin: many thought she lacked the political experience required to be the person “a heartbeat away from the presidency”. But she played up her “ordinary American” credentials by saying that “hockey moms” needed to say no to greed and corruption on Wall Street, which she blamed for the problems facing the US economy. The friendly opening by Palin to Biden, however, was an amusing reminder that she had allegedly had difficulty remembering Biden’s surname during debate preparations. In their account of the 2008 presidential campaign, Game Change, the authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann said she repeatedly referred to him as “O’Biden” instead of Biden. To solve the problem, Palin’s advisers suggested she refer to her opponent by his first name. And as the two greet each other on debate night you can just hear her eagerly ask Biden: “Hey, can I call you Joe?” “O’Biden” was regarded as the winner — although the polls suggested that Palin had a better showing than expected, this was largely because it was a gaffe-free performance for her, rather than a demonstration of an impressive grasp of policy. John McCain vs. Barack Obama | October 2008 In 2008, the Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s debate against Barack Obama created quite a media frenzy. McCain — referring to an energy bill that would benefit oil companies — said: “Who voted for it? You might never know — that one,” gesturing toward Obama. “Who voted against it? Me.” Referring to the Illinois senator as “that one” led to much speculation. What was McCain implying? Was it revealing his contempt for Obama? Was it (gasp) racist? Though we’ll never know what was going through McCain’s mind, there was a general consensus that the remark was disrespectful. Professors and media outlets alike asserted the comment spoke volumes about McCain’s personal feelings toward Obama, and possibly acquiescing to the Obama hate that had cropped up around the country. Already behind in the polls, and combined with Palin’s regular slip-ups, McCain’s gaffe certainly did not help his ticket. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vs. Mir-Hossein Mousavi | June 2009 Those who consider Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a hardline insider should not forget that he has fought two successful election campaigns on an anti-establishment, anti-corruption ticket. It was in this context that he brandished a file on his 2009 challenger, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, during a presidential debate on TV, accusing Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, of falsifying her academic qualifications:

I have a file on a certain woman. You know her. She sits next to you in your campaign broadcasts. In violation of all the country’s laws, when she was an employee [of the government] she studied for two MAs . . . She received her PhD without passing the entrance exams.

The cheap shot backfired on the incumbent. Mousavi forcefully defended his wife as “the most important female intellectual in the country”. Rahnavard, an influential campaigner and former government adviser, hit back, accusing Ahmadinejad of humiliating not just herself, but all Iranian women. Disparate reformist groups rallied behind Mousavi, leading to the disturbances during the 12 June poll and its hotly disputed result.