3George Allen Calls Someone A ‘Macaca’

This one might sound particularly weird, given that it’s a bit of racial insensitivity that tanked a senator’s career. Nowadays, that’s basically their platform. Is it weird to say that a Republican candidate being overtly racist was “ahead of his time”? Kind of, but here we are. Shoulda held out for 2016, big fella! The politician in question was George Allen, a Virginia governor who has fallen so far from grace that Google now suggests on googling him, “Did you mean third-string Bengals cornerback Allan George?”

The moment of his downfall came when he chose to acknowledge a volunteer for his opponent’s campaign, who just so unluckily happened to be taping him at the time. He started with “This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt,” which, while certainly not friendly, is a perfectly acceptable way to pick someone out of a crowd. He then added a bit of politically devastating clarification on the Indian-American man he was indicating, calling him “Macaca, or whatever his name is.” He doubled down with, “Let’s give a welcome to Macaca here. Welcome to America.”

Generally don’t want to follow up a made-up racist name with something neo-Nazis say after they do a hate crime in movies. He was not re-elected.

2The Howard Dean Scream

Maybe one of the most-cited gaffes in recent history to show just how precipitous a candidate’s public speaking engagements could be is Howard Dean’s famous scream. The earlier entries on this list needed at least a genuine idea that was stupid or offensive to pour sugar in their political gas tank. It turned out all Dean needed was unbridled enthusiasm and a single extremely unlucky voice crack.

While at a 2004 rally, Dean attempted to punctuate the end of his speech with what I assume was meant to be a powerful war cry. Unfortunately for him, his vocal cords declined to acquiesce, and what came out, additionally isolated by the microphone, was the uneven squeal of a pre-teen karate student practicing a straight punch. From that moment on, I assume the DNC required vocal exercises, a tin of Fisherman’s Friend and a volume cap for all potential candidates.

1Michael Dukakis Rides in a Tank

Our last entry didn’t need words at all to enter the realm of ridicule. It was, as Politico calls it in an in-depth history of the moment, “the worst campaign photo-op ever.” This was the fateful decision for presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis to take a photo of him riding in a military tank. Dukakis was by no means a large man at 5-foot-8. It doesn’t take much of a talent for visual comedy to imagine that throwing him into a massive tank, with the cherry-on-top being a huge military helmet strapped onto his diminutive dome, would not look very commanding.

It was not, and even the reporters apparently were unable to stop from laughing during the photo-op, a reaction that was mirrored by most of the country. To this day it’s a touchstone reference for an unwise campaign event, and one that furthered the wisdom once uttered by Barack Obama, that “you don’t put stuff on your head if you’re president. That’s politics 101.”

I doubt he’d admit it, but given that the item in question was a helmet, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was remembering Dukakis’ exact mistake at that moment.