... Make that 18 Million (and One) Cracks in the Glass Ceiling

Ferraro held her own in the vice-presidential debate with George Bush on October 11, 1984, but most pundits agreed that Bush came out ahead, adequately performing the difficult task laid out by one of his advisers: "Your assignment is to win, but not have her lose." Bush could not appear too patronizing, nor could he seem too deferential. But his comment at a rally for longshoremen in Elizabeth, New Jersey the morning after the debate -- that he had "tried to kick a little ass" -- became, as political reporters Jack Germond and Jules Witcover called it, a "classic campaign tempest in a teapot." As did a comment by Barbara Bush characterizing Ferraro as "a four million dollar -- I can't say it but it rhymes with rich" because, in the opinion of the vice-president's wife, Ferraro was masquerading as a working-class wife and mother.