What happened to Dan Quayle?

[crazy grady]

What happened to Dan Quayle, George W. Bush's Vice President? He ran in the 1996 and 2000 primaries and lost badly in each. Where is he now?

He was kind of a fundamentalist fellow, kind of a far right Christian. He is probably a lawyer in Indianapolis or something. Outside of Indiana, he is probably not welcomed in Republican gatherings. Well, he's rich I guess.

Where is Dan????

Grady

[Duckster]

He turned himself into a museum (probably because Ripley's Believe It or Not, didn't!).

[yanceylebeef]

I think he was born that way.

[refusal]

He is involved as a trustee of Freedom House, a non-partisan organisation campaigning for democracy which was co-founded by Eleanor Roosevelt. I'm not sure how much of his time that takes up.

Other than that, nobody seems to know. Even the official biographies end with his failed 2000 Presidential bid. He wrote or edited a number of books in the 1980s and 1990s, but Amazon doesn't have anything recent. If you want more information, you could try his agency for public speaking appearances, but their bio is equally sparse.

[refusal]

His only public pronouncement since 2000 came in 2002 when he spoke out in support of TV show The Osbournes.

[dantheman]

Originally posted by crazy grady
What happened to Dan Quayle, George W. Bush's Vice President?

That'd be George H. W. Bush, aka Poppy, aka Pere Bush, aka Daddy, aka George I. Unless I'm being whooshed again.

[Sofa King]

His brain was surgically removed by a secret team of Livermore Labs scientists and placed in the body of a brain-dead Presidential candidate who choked on a pretzel during the 2000 campaign.

[Sofa King]

Quayle's original head was secretly removed and cast in bronze, where it sits in the Senate wing of the US Capitol. The two chief scientists on the project were commissioned as "sculptors" and liquidated to ensure their silence.

[Chefguy]

Ah, the good ol' days of Mr. Potatoe Head. The guy was always good for a laugh until you remembered with sudden chilling clarity that he was only a sniper's bullet away from the oval office.

[aahala]

Dan changed his name to Quayl in hopes of being a spelling be judge again. Sorry, spelling bee.

[cmurdough]

I think the potato incident was unfair. Quayle was reading from an improperly printed flashcard that had potato spelled "potatoe." NOW everbody knows that potato--singular--has no "e" on the end, but before that day in the school, I think it was easy to to take the flashcard at face value because there's an "e" after the "o" in "potatoes."

[cmurdough]

I think the potato incident was unfair. Quayl was reading from an improperly printed flashcard that had potato spelled "potatoe." NOW everybody knows that potato--singular--has no "e" on the end, but before that day in the school, I think it was easy to take the flashcard at face value because there's an "e" after the "o" in "potatoes."
('Sorry--I had to add a "y" and omit the extraneous "to." I know how particular people are on this site.)

[dtilque]

As I understand the potatoe incident, the card was not "improperly printed", but rather delierately printed with a spelling error to see if the testee would recognize the misspelling. Quayle blithely assumed the words on the cards were correctly spelled rather than asking someone about them.

[Walloon]

I don't remember Quayle being either a fundamentalist Christian or on the "far right", politically. He was pretty mainstream as a Christian and a Republican. He wrote an introduction to the anthology On Faith and Free Government, asserting his belief in the separation of church and state.

Meanwhile:
Candice Bergen agrees with Quayle.

The label "right-wing".

[paperbackwriter]

I really hesitate to post this, because it could easily provoke a GD hijack. But in the interests of "factuality":

Walloon, did you google for that reference, or were you looking for it? Because the Media Research Center is not some centrist, apolitical journalistic research organisation. Their mission statement is to be "The Leader in Documenting, Exposing and Neutralizing Liberal Media Bias" They aren't the most credible organization to use as a cite to refute the suggestion that Quayle is right-wing. In fact, given their mission, their implied endorsement of Quayle could be taken as confirmation of Quayle's conservative credentials. ("Not that there's anything wrong with that!")

[Captain Amazing]

Originally posted by cmurdough
Quayl was reading from an improperly printed flashcard that had potato spelled "potatoe."

[vanilla]

I seem to recall reading he lives in Arizona.

[stockton]

I actually met the man once, while he was veep.

I do not share his politics, but he was completely erudite and charming. I can say (empirically, in my own judgement) that Dan Q is very sharp and engaging, and NOT stupid. I think he got a bad rap. I did not vote for him.

Folks, you don't get that high on the ladder without some social skills and some clout.

LBJ had both, Cheney has both, Gore has both. Just not ENOUGH to get to the top rung without someone else's intervention. Okay, Mondale had neither. He is the exception to the rule.

[Sam Stone]

Quayle, unlike many other presidents and candidates we can think of, made it into politics pretty much on his own. His family ran a local newspaper, and he went to average schools. He has a degree in Political Science, and also a law degree.

He was elected to Congress at age 29, beating an incumbent. Won re-election in the biggest landslide his district had ever seen, and then won a Senate seat against an incumbent. Won re-election in the biggest landslide the state had ever seen. Once in the Senate, he rocketed to the top of the heap, winning seats on many of the most powerful committees, and co-drafting a veyr large education bill in partnership with Ted Kennedy.

At this point, NO ONE thought Quayle was stupid. He was a very popular politician, and respected on both sides of the aisle. After all, Bush picked the guy for a reason.

When Quayle joined the ticket, the Democrats made the decision that he was most vulnerable to the charge of 'youth and inexperience'. Quayle then uttered a couple of gaffes like the 'potatoe' thing, and the meme stuck. And once the media label someone, they follow them constantly looking for evidence to back up the label.

Btw, from what I understand, Quayle is now working with some investment company.

[Muad'Dib]

I once had a very liberal PolySci teacher who did agree that Dan Quayle was one of the most unfairly labeled men in history.

[KenGr]

Here is a recent Dan Quayle sighting:

Dan plays golf

He lives in Phoenix, Arizona where he was born.

Quayle, now a young 56, is a global trotter, particularly on a regular basis to Germany and Japan as chairman of global operations for an investment company.

Say what you want, it sounds like he gets the last laugh.

[Jinx]

Originally posted by cmurdough
I think the potato incident was unfair. Quayle was reading from an improperly printed flashcard that had potato spelled "potatoe." NOW everbody knows that potato--singular--has no "e" on the end, but before that day in the school, I think it was easy to to take the flashcard at face value because there's an "e" after the "o" in "potatoes."

Absolutely unacceptable! Excuse me, but when you have the best education Daddy can buy, this just proves what a bozo he is! He should have been bright enough to recognize the difference between singular and plural when spelling "potato". The man couldn't think for himself without Daddy's help. Is that a person - or puppet - you'd like to see in the White House? The issue here runs much deeper than that infamous spelling bee... (Besides, how can he judge a spelling bee when he can't even spell himself?)

I can only hope he's off peeling potatoes in the White House kitchen for eternity...to keep the free world safe from him tripping over his silver-spooned tongue.
- Jinx

[Jinx]

Originally posted by Sam Stone
Quayle, unlike many other presidents and candidates we can think of, made it into politics pretty much on his own. His family ran a local newspaper, and he went to average schools. He has a degree in Political Science, and also a law degree...

I'll have to look into this further. Do you have a source for this? I was certain he was an Ivy Leaguer. I'm not convinced Quayle was just your average, hard-working citizen making it into politics from grass-roots support...as you're pitching. Something doesn't sound kosher here... If he didn't look like a young Robert Redford, no one would have taken the decision seriously to make a viable running mate. Actually, I heard they used to card him at all the affairs! - Jinx

[dantheman]

Nope, he went to Indiana State an DePaul: http://www.christcenteredmall.com/ne...e-profile.htm.

[cmkeller]

Jinx:

Something doesn't sound kosher here... If he didn't look like a young Robert Redford, no one would have taken the decision seriously to make a viable running mate.

This sounds vaguely like the Doonesbury cartoons that ran at the time...are you a big reader of that strip, by any chance?

[Sofa King]

Finding Quayle on the golf course wouldn't be that unusual. His handicap is excellent, somewhere between three and six. I recall reading before his election as VP that it he was actually a 2 handicap while he was a Senator (which makes you wonder how he had time to actually be a Senator).

[aahala]

This is not an indication of Mr. Quayle's ability or lack thereof, but a comment about how luck is involved.(and many other politicians as well).

Quayle got into the house by defeating a long time incumbent Democrat. Most likely the district over the years had turned increasely conservative and Republican.

Quayle got into the Senate by defeating three-term incumbent Democrat Birch Bayh in 1980. That was the year Reagan defeated Carter by almost 20 percentage points in Indiana. Indiana is a pretty Republican state, with the exception for the Bayh family.

My point, rising in the political pecking order can involve great luck and Quayle is just one example of that.

[Walloon]

Originally posted by Jinx
If he didn't look like a young Robert Redford, no one would have taken the decision seriously to make a viable running mate.

Quayle did not resemble a young Robert Redford. As Redford himself said, neither physically nor politically.

[dantheman]

That's not a good picture of Bob. He looks more like James Dean there.

[Walloon]

Ok, a few more pictures.

[dantheman]

I dunno, a couple of those look alarmingly Quaylian....

[Rilchiam]

He appeared in a Lay's potato chips commerical, but just once, in the protracted version that aired during the Super Bowl. Can't remember the year, but it was sometime during Clinton's second term. Anyway, this middle-school-aged kid has a bag of Lay's and a seat in the nosebleed section. He manages to trade his way down the stands by offering people chips, and when he gets to the front row, there's Quayle. Quayle accepted the chip, but I forget if the kid got a seat or not.

[RTA]

The high water mark of his Vice Presidency was the day when Bush suffered some allegedly minor heart trouble. The news that afternoon showed Quayle out on a tarmac somewhere; to some reporter's shouted question he gave a thumbs-up, a smirk and an "I'm ready!".

For demonstrating not only that heart attacks were contagious but they could also be exacerbated by two simple words uttered on TV, he deserves some sort of footnote in the medical literature.

[Krokodil]

Originally posted by crazy grady
Outside of Indiana, he is probably not welcomed in Republican gatherings.

He made his bones as an exceptionally skillful fundraiser, which put him on the short list for Bush Sr.'s potential running mates. I promise you no Republican organization in the country would turn their nose up at him.

[gossamer]

Originally posted by dantheman
Nope, he went to Indiana State an DePaul: http://www.christcenteredmall.com/ne...e-profile.htm.

The page linked to is currently unavailable, but I know he did undergrad work at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN, and went to Indiana University law school.

[friedo]

Originally posted by Jinx
Absolutely unacceptable! Excuse me, but when you have the best education Daddy can buy, this just proves what a bozo he is! He should have been bright enough to recognize the difference between singular and plural when spelling "potato". The man couldn't think for himself without Daddy's help. Is that a person - or puppet - you'd like to see in the White House? The issue here runs much deeper than that infamous spelling bee... (Besides, how can he judge a spelling bee when he can't even spell himself?)

What the hell are you talking about? Quayle's family was well-off but hardly super-rich, and he attended a public university. Stupid spelling mistakes in embarrassingly public situations don't make a person a moron.

[dantheman]

Originally posted by gossamer
The page linked to is currently unavailable, but I know he did undergrad work at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN, and went to Indiana University law school.

I found a better site, The Quayle Museum.

Mr. Quayle was born on February 4, 1947, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was named after James Danforth, a longtime Quayle family friend killed in World War II. After spending much of his youth in Arizona, he graduated from Huntington High School in Huntington, Indiana, in 1965. He then matriculated at DePauw University, where he received his B.A. degree in political science in 1969. After receiving his degree, Mr. Quayle joined the Indiana National Guard and served from 1969-75. While serving in the Guard, he earned a law degree from Indiana University in 1974.