The coliseum of politics sees all sorts of gladiators. Some of them battle their enemies with the bow and arrow of argument. Some employ the trident of backstabbing and bribery. Some even choose the blunt, broken sword of Doing the Right Thing. But sometimes, just sometimes, a politician gleefully ignores all the conventional weaponry and wins the battle by slapping the enemy down with the rubber chicken of batshit insanity.

5 Ronald Reagan Steals Debate Notes from Jimmy Carter

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On paper, the U.S. presidential election of 1980 seemed like an absurdly unfair fight: Incumbent Jimmy Carter was facing some semi-retired B-movie actor called Ronald Reagan. Yet the campaigning proved fierce, thanks to Carter's less than successful first term and Reagan pulling a stunt that you'd expect to see in an election for middle school class president.

Late in the race, Carter and Reagan were virtually tied. But there was one major event left: The one and only debate between the major candidates. The event was hyped up like a Muhammad Ali match. Carter prepared his notes accordingly: He had his people painstakingly create a book of briefing papers that included his entire debate strategy, complete with zingers he was to memorize.

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Mostly "yo mama" jokes.

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However, in the days before the debate, team Carter found that a copy of the papers was missing. This was bad. The beating that Reagan gave Carter in the actual debate was even worse. The Republican methodically decimated Carter on all fronts, leaving him and his campaign little more than a greasy puddle on the studio floor. It was almost as if (foreshadowing!) Reagan knew exactly what Carter was going to say, word for word. Which, of course, was the case.

One of Reagan's staffers had "found" the missing strategy book and brought it to his boss. Offered this window into Carter's head, Reagan instantly adapted a new strategy: cheating like a boss. Reagan studied the material and rehearsed with a Carter stand-in until he knew precisely what Carter would say and how he should respond.

Via Mentalfloss.com

It made for a much more elegant debate than the cock-punch Reagan had planned to open with.

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And it worked -- the Gipper tore through his opponent with a torrent of well-timed quips and counters. A week later, Reagan won the election. Although the truth of "Debategate" eventually came out, it never caused lasting harm to Reagan. Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter still maintains the claim that this one lost book totally cost him the election, and presumably keeps his library in a locked vault.