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You're right, Senator, I wouldn't promise air support to anti-communist rebels, only to renege when they hit the beaches.
Or, leaving aside JFK, Quayle could have said: Senator, you probably served with Thomas Jefferson. You knew Thomas Jefferson. You were friends. But that doesn't mean you'd make a good vice-president.
Anything.
No such luck; Quayle lived down to the expectations of the media and his opponents.
Rest in peace, Sen. Bentsen, your quip is firmly etched in the annals of American political rhetoric.