Dan Quayle

U.S. Vice President

Dan Quayle was vice president of the United States under President George Bush from 1989-93. The son of an Indiana newspaper publisher, Quayle was elected to Congress at age 29 and in 1980, at age 33, he defeated Democratic powerhouse Birch Bayh to become the state's junior U.S. senator. Quayle continued his string of youthful successes in 1988, when he was elected vice president on the Republican ticket led by Bush, the sitting vice president under Ronald Reagan. Quayle's foes accused him of being an intellectual lightweight, and fairly or not the label stuck. His many verbal blunders were highlighted in the press, giving credence to those who claimed Quayle was in over his head. His most famous gaffe was in 1992, when he incorrectly "corrected" an elementary school student on the spelling of "potato" (Quayle instructed the child to spell it "potatoe"). Though he was tapped for mostly economic development issues, Vice President Quayle made his biggest splash as a champion of "traditional family values," especially after being critical of a popular television show that featured an unwed mother (the sitcom Murphy Brown). Quayle made an unsuccessful run for the 2000 GOP presidential nomination, which was won instead by Bush's son George W. Bush. He then joined Cerberus Global Investments, a private investment firm.

Extra credit: Quayle was the fifth Indianan to serve as vice president.

Quayle appears with Alan Keyes and Steve Forbes in our loop Candidates 2000.