So presidential debates — I mean, you could choose so many synonyms for disaster. Murder-suicide. Masterclass. Multi-stage ... Make or break ... Takedown ... Multi-vehicle pile-up ... Where to even start? In a live debate, every second has the potential to become a viral moment. “And that little girl was me.” But only a few actually make or break a presidential campaign. “I have no comment.” So we asked these political reporters, past and present, to watch some debates. “I’m sorry.” I’d forgotten the very strange expression on my face. To tell us how these moments shaped history and why we still talk about them today. Nobody else remembers anything that happened on the night that Rick Perry forgot the third federal agency. “It’s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone — commerce, education and the — what’s the third one there? Let’s see.” And this is where it goes really, really wrong. “You can’t name the third one?” “The third agency of government I would do away with.” And he’s going to his notes. “I can’t. The third one I can’t, sorry. Oops.” It was everywhere. This was a historic political catastrophe. Your best moment might ricochet in the media, but your worst moment is actually much more likely to. By the time Chris Christie got to this debate stage, his presidential campaign was not going anywhere. By the time he left, he had done a lot to ensure that Rubio’s wasn’t, either. “And let’s dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing.” “Let’s dispel with this fiction.” This was the sort of pre-baked line that he had planned to drop at some point in the debate. “But I would add this, let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing.” And he does it again. And Christie’s ready. “That’s what Washington, D.C., does. The memorized 25-second speech that is exactly what his advisers gave him.” “Here’s the bottom line. This notion that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing is just not true.” “There it is.” “Number three.” “He knows exactly what he’s doing.” “There it is, the memorized 25-second speech.” There it is, and Christie’s ready. “That’s the reason why —” “There it is, everybody.” “— this campaign is so —” Marco Rubio had all the attention, all the momentum going into this debate, and all of a sudden, Christie knifed him. It was a murder-suicide, frankly, in political terms. The weapon of choice was Rubio’s own words. Trump, as you can see, has no particular role in this exchange. He really benefited in a lot of ways, and this is emblematic of it, from the other candidates thinking that if they could just take out everybody else and get Trump in a one-on-one match-up, then they would be the one. “The debate is over.” It’s 1992. There was a very difficult recession. Unemployment got to almost 8%. Along comes this obscure Arkansas governor. Bill Clinton had held town halls all around the country. He excelled at them. It allowed him to make a personal connection with voters. “In my state, when people lose their jobs, there’s a good chance I’ll know them by their names. When a factory closes, I know the people who ran it.” She starts to nod. She agrees with him. This is a masterclass in making a person feel listened to and connecting through eye contact, whereas if you look at George Bush, he’s looking around. He’s trying to escape the question. There was no way George Bush was going to catch up after that. In the 1984 election, Ronald Reagan was already the oldest president to serve in American history. And as we got into the homestretch of the campaign, there were growing questions about his age and about his mental acuity. Ronald Reagan’s greatest gift, of course, was humor. “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” (Laughter) You can see Walter Mondale. And he can’t help but crack up, too. And he later told people that that’s when he knew he had lost that presidential election. I cover Joe Biden now. He is 76. And there are so many folks, including many Democrats, who will point to this moment with Reagan and say that’s the way that you talk about age. Pictures of Ford had sort of characterized him as somewhat of a fumbler. “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. And there never will be under a Ford administration.” “I’m sorry. Could I just —” I stopped it because you don’t trick a president into comments. You go back at him. And you say, excuse me — “Did I understand you to say, sir, that the Russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence?” I knew what he was trying to say, but he so fumbled it, that it came out as if he was saying the Russians don’t have any influence or control over the countries of Eastern Europe. “I don’t believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union.” The poor guy, this performance fit right into the cliche image that people had of him. (Phone ringing) “Hello.” And it took them 24 hours to put out a corrective statement saying what he really meant to say, et cetera. But by then it was too late. (Applause) “Dr. Ben Carson.” A gaffe committed in the current climate with all the reactions that immediately follow is preserved forever. You’re running against yourself in effect and against your own image as you’ve created it over the years.