April 10, 2007
What are the most memorable political moments from radio and television?
The Museum of Broadcast Communications will have a top 100. Meanwhile, here's one contributor's top 10. The top 10 is clogged with some obvious choices, so it would be more interesting to see the next 1o. Anyway, Bush is represented by "I can hear you!" Clinton, by I have "caused pain in our marriage."
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I would have to put some of the Watergate Hearings in there somewhere. Talk about the power of television. I was in Lexington, Ky that summer and the streets were empty during the broadcasts...middle day...We had potluck lunches to sit and watch.
I paid for this microphone
The Shining City Upon A Hill
On January 25, 1974
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-7gpgXNWYI
several of Churchill's wartime speeches. among them:
Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat
We Shall Fight on the Beaches
Their Finest Hour
'The Few'
Sinews of Peace (Iron Curtain)
Nixon: Checkers
Clinton's quote in the top ten seems more about trying to include him than because of something really memorable. "We all remember Clinton right?" And Obama's? Significant for people who are wanting media moments, not for the country. Not at all.
Surely, Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" line should be in the top five.
C-SPAN showing congressmen giving empty speeches to empty rooms.
I always did like the speech "The Era of Big Government is Over." I have been hoping for it for years... and then to have a democratic president say it...what could be better. Alas, it was too good to be true. Big government is still here - I need my E85!
The news channels pulling Florida back to undecided from Gore was also a great political TV moment.
John F. Kerry:
"... get stuck in Iraq."
You asked for humor, right?
Lloyd Bentson's, 'you,sir, are no John Kennedy,' and Reagan's 'there you go again.' Both are debate moments and, although [likely] scripted, they were sprung and used quite deftly.
The most significant moment to me was Clinton wagging his finger and assuring me, "I did not. Have. Sexual relations with that woman. Ms. Lewinsky."
Nick's right -- if you had to pick a Clinton moment, the "that woman" speech is a lot more memorable and significant than his 60 Minutes appearance.
Really, though, the Clinton and Obama moments have no place on the list, as (unlike the rest of the entries) they really had no impact on politics. The Bush entry is questionable too -- if you had to pick a Bush moment, the 9/11 address to the nation where he swore not to distinguish between the terrorists and those who support them would be a better pick.
Trying not to duplicate.
LBJ's "Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."
The Daisy commercial (used by LBJ campaign against Goldwater).
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Monica Lewinsky".
Though I'm not sure what GWB's moment should be, it's interesting that "I hear you" was selected as a memorable 'political' moment.
Reagan's political moment would have to be "I am paying for this microphone, Mr Green."
"Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong."
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/41486g.htm
"My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep"
Revenant: if you had to pick a Clinton moment, the "that woman" speech is a lot more memorable and significant than his 60 Minutes appearance. Really, though, the Clinton and Obama moments have no place on the list
You're right, thats his Legacy Quote, and it doesn't measure up to the others. But what damning contrast:
Ask not what your country can do for you ...tear down this wall ...a day that will live in infamy ...this was their finest hour ...we have nothing to fear but fear itself ...I did not have sex with that woman...
It will be curious to see if Clinton's quote makes the list. And interesting to deterimine why.
Nixon's wouldn't be the Checkers speech, although that is the second most memorable thing he said. The first?
"I am not a crook."
Rhodes scholar:
"It depends on what the word is is."
"Read my lips. No new taxes."
George H.W. Bush.
If not for that quote, we might not have any of the Clinton quotes, let alone the vast abundance that would pack a top 100 list.
The press conference in Iraq where we announced the capture of Saddam Hussein - "we got him!", and when the statue of Saddam was toppled.
Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics.
If we were to include non-US events, Tiananmen Square & the Berlin Wall coming down.
Disco Demolition as a political movment!
Steve Dahl: “The average guy in Chicago didn’t have the right clothes, couldn’t get into the right clubs, and thought he’d never get laid again because of disco,”
A favorite TV moment!
paul a'barge said...
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Monica Lewinsky".
...funnily enough neither did I. Have I missed something?
Drill Sarge is right - Churchill's speeches are sans pareil in this or in any other universe.
Related is Richard Dimbleby's coverage of Churchill's funeral. (He did JFK's as well.)
Should be in the BBC archive.
The chatrooms are buzzing.
What they are saying, --they don't want to discuss politics. They want to discuss personal stuff---some personal revelations etc...
That's what they're saying. It's not me...it's the chatroom.
Peace, Maxine
no contest, the falling twin towers for my [born in 1980s] generation.
This event is surely political according to the broadest [and most important] definition: use of intrigue or strategy in obtaining any position of power or control...
1968 Olympics Mexico City
1972 Olympics Munich
Ugh....can't we discuss anything besides politics??
Let's play Truth or Dare. I'll go first....
Peace, Maxine
The author obviously has a very poor knowledge of history. I would think Lincoln's July 4, 1861 address to Congress, which launched this nation into the Civil War, would be more important than most, if not all, of those selections.
"Who am I? Why am I here?
Nathan, I'll second that one. When I put up my first post I forgot MM mentioned the popularized version of Reagan's 'microphone' quote.
I should also mention I wouldn't include FDR's Declaration of War speech because I don't consider it truely political, either.
More (mostly TV) political moments of consequence that have come to my mind...
Ford's "The Poles don't consider themselves under Soviet domination" gaffe
Chevy Chase pratfalling as Ford
Reagan again.. I will not use my opponent's youth and inexperience against him.
Carter's Malaise speech
Ross Perot's flip charts
Bush 41 glancing at his watch during the 1992 debates
Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination hearings
Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings
Anita Hill's testimony
Oliver North's Iran-Contra testimony
RFK's organized crime hearings (were they televised?)
Dewey Defeats Truman
Because I like it, and Regan borrowed from it:
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
---
Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee
No. 412 Squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941
"Who am I? Why am I here?
I am still laughing at this.
Maybe the British should try to learn a few things from this guy.
"Мы вас похороним!" -- "We will bury you" (Intended to mean, we will still be around to attend your funeral, not necessarily cause it.)
"I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president." Which is awfully close to what untelevised William Sherman said, "If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve."
"It will be the mother of all wars." Not sure that was televised.
"The president just needs to step back and take a deep breath." Kidding.
I would think Lincoln's July 4, 1861 address to Congress, which launched this nation into the Civil War, would be more important than most
But we didn't have public radio broadcasting until the 1920's. The criteria is "from radio or television".
When Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley were debating in 1968 after the Democratic National Convention. Vidal called Buckley a "crypto-nazi" and Buckley replied: "Shut up you goddamn queer or I'll punch you in the mouth."
the falling twin towers for my generation... use of intrigue or strategy in obtaining any position of power or control...
Are you saying you liken the most memorable political moment for your generation to the Reichstag fire?
[....]
I can't think of anything political as dramatic as the resignation of Presidents Nixon and the announced by LBJ that he would not run a second time.
oh Jim....let's revisit this topic middle january 2009 around noon one day if, god willing, not sooner. there may be some great political TV...
The best is always yet to come.
Was it Dan Rather?
"Fake, but accurate."
"Lincoln's July 4, 1861 address to Congress, which launched this nation into the Civil War,..."
Funny, I always thought the (April 12th) attack on Fort Sumner did that.
JACOB....OHMYGOD I REMEMBER THAT!!!!
AND HE JUMPED UP AND JUMPED OVER HIS CHAIR...AND SAID I'VE GOT TO GO......
WAY TO GO....WAY TO GO....45 YEARS....WOW
"National Nightmare is over."
"Mission Accomplished."
"Mission Accomplished."
Nah. I understand why its become a convenient symbol for the anti-war crowd, but it was accurate: combat ops were successful in toppling Hussein.
The mission to liberate Iraq was a success. The next stage of the war - transforming it into a democratic state capable of defending itself - has not been [so far].
My favorite obscure television moment is Fred Rogers turning the tables on Charlie Rose. Fred asked, "And how are you, Charles?" And Charlie was tongue-tied.
Not that I even necessarily agree with the substance of the speech, but for it's rhetorical brilliance Mario Cuomo's "A Tale of Two Cities" speech from the 1984 DNC should be on the list.
Oh yeah, and you just reminded me of Ann Richard's born with a silver foot in his mouth line.
How about that moment in 1988 when "Bush came to shove" with Dan Rather?
P. Rich,
That poem was at either the begining or the end,I can't remember which, of one of my very favorite TV shows as a kid. Jet Jackson.
Egad, I totally zoned over the "radio and television" part. *blush*
But I would agree that FDR declaration of war was most certainly NOT political, as war with Japan was a forgone conclusion.
But, by the same stroke, Chevy Chase's send-up of Ford, or Jesse Owen's Olympic victory were not strictly political either.
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