A Fork in the Road to Election Day, or: The Choice Just Got Clearer

A Fork in the Road to Election Day, or: The Choice Just Got Clearer

For as long as there have been presidential debates on television -- that is, since 1960 -- they have featured gotcha lines. Some years the debates have consisted of little more. Delivering a good one has been the object of the game at least since Lloyd Bentsen sandbagged poor Dan Quayle in 1988. His rebuke would become a standard entry in the lexicon of presidential debates: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." (Prolonged shouts and applause.)

The kibitzers in the press corps and political...