Quayle was visiting Rivera Elementary School in Trenton, New Jersey, and decided to help facilitate a spelling bee. 12-year-old William Figueroa was summoned to the board to spell the word "potato". He spelled the word correctly. However, Quayle forced him to add an unnecessary "e" at the end of the word.
It turns out that Quayle had been going off of a flashcard provided by the school, which had the word spelled incorrectly. Although Quayle should have known better, the school should have known better as well. Either way, the ensuing media assault was ruthless, and the incident came to be known as "Potatoegate". Quayle's credibility was heavily damaged, and the public perception that he wasn't the brightest man in the room was confirmed. Figueroa himself later commented on this, stating that it "showed that the rumors about the Vice President are true - that he's an idiot". As for Quayle himself, he was quite embarrassed. He would go on to write in his memoir that “It was more than a gaffe. It was a defining moment of the worst imaginable kind. I can’t overstate how discouraging and exasperating the whole event was.”
Sources:
http://publicapologycentral.com/apologia-archive/political-2/dan-quayle-potato-incident/
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/64689/never-forget-time-dan-quayle-misspelled-potato
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/quayle3.htm
I really liked your post and specifically the first paragraph as well as the topic you chose because I've never heard of it before. I feel like situations like "Potatoegate" really do show that everyone makes mistakes as well I believe that simple mistakes like the one in "Potatoegate" really shouldn't have that big of an impact on how the public views you. While they should raise some questions, especially if they happen a lot or if they're meaningful enough mistakes, small one off mistakes like the one with Dan Quayle shouldn't be a big deal or change public perception of a person, which unfortunately was not the case for Quayle.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post since it takes a humorous angle on American History. After reading this, it helped me realize how American politics has changed over the last few decades. These days, if politicians make blunders like this, they move, try to hide it, or blame the opposition for something to distract others. The fact that Quayle admitted his embarrassment and owned the blunder really shows how recent shifts such as polarization have caused leaders to have to seem perfect to their supporters.
ReplyDeleteAlso, for anyone interested, I found this article as an interesting resource on the effects of polarization in our politics today: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_is_the_true_cost_of_polarization_in_america