Reagan’s zinger had the unintended consequence of making premeditated wisecracks an obligatory feature of future presidential debates. In 1984, former vice president Walter “Fritz” Mondale belittled Senator Gary Hart’s “new ideas” campaign theme by weaponizing the catchphrase of a then popular Wendy’s commercial, “Where’s the beef?” Mondale might have congratulated himself for being the first presidential aspirant to repurpose the rhetoric of a hamburger chain, but he couldn’t rest on his laurels as an insult comic for long: the master of the art form, Ronald Reagan, would best him in their
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