Murphy Brown (name of the TV show as well as the character Bergen played) was very popular in 1992. It got some extra media coverage when then-Vice President Dan Quayle made a speech criticizing the show for Bergen’s character becoming a single mother. About a month later, Quayle was judging a spelling bee, and prompted a kid to spell potato “potatoe.”

To me as a perpetually stoned college student, Quayle was hilarious, and I thought he was a major factor in Clinton’s victory. But then the country elected Dubya twice, and then Trump, so now it just seems like a depressing incident where the country dodged a bullet. I’m sorry GenZ didn’t at least get to experience the brief illusion that there are people so dumb, US voters won’t elect them.

Although it’s never good to be overly cynical. I voted for Obama in 2008 thinking there was no chance he’d win. I thought John Edwards had the best chance. Must’ve been the hair. It was humbling to be wrong about US voters not electing a black President, but it also lulled me into a false sense of security in 2016. I’m not sure Republicans really wanted to win in 2008. It’s been the pattern throughout my life that Republicans gain office, destroy the economy, and then ensure the Democrat elected to fix it gets no credit for doing it.