Ronald Reagan, Howard Dean and Gary Hart all made an impression during debates. | AP Photos Memorable primary-debate moments

Though they can help shape the race, voters forget most of the specifics of what’s said during presidential debates. But the zingers and gaffes endure.

As GOP candidates take the stage at Wednesday night’s Ronald Reagan Presidential Library debate sponsored by POLITICO and NBC News, we’ll be on the lookout for those made-for-TV — or for YouTube, or for Twitter — moments.


They’ll certainly have competition from these other memorable primary debate moments from the last few presidential cycles:

“I am paying for this microphone!” — 1980

GOP candidate Ronald Reagan had personally financed the 1980 New Hampshire primary debate. So when a moderator tried to cut off Reagan’s microphone while he was inviting several other candidates to join him and George H.W. Bush on stage, Reagan cut him off instead, famously declaring, “I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green!”

The newspaper editor’s name was actually “Breen,” but it didn’t matter. Bush stayed mute, looking weak. While the outburst solidified Reagan’s image as a firm decision maker and marked the beginning of his surge in the national polls. Reagan later said, “I may have won the debate, the primary — and the nomination — right there.”

“Where’s the beef?” — 1984

During the primaries in the spring of 1984, Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” commercial had reached its height of popularity, turning the the hamburger restaurant’s slogan into a national catchphrase.

At the same time, Sen. Gary Hart, the Democratic primary dark horse, had gained a lead over former Vice President Walter Mondale, campaigning on “new ideas.”

So when Hart once again bragged about his “new ideas” during a New York debate, Mondale leaned forward and quipped, “When I hear your news ideas, I’m reminded of that ad, ‘Where’s the beef?’”

"You’re not worth being on the same platform as my wife." — 1992

During eBay CEO Meg Whitman’s hard-fought gubernatorial campaign against former California Gov. Jerry Brown last year, she dredged up old sound bites of Bill Clinton attacking Brown during their contentious 1992 presidential primary.

But nowhere was that testy relationship more on display than the 1992 debate in Chicago. Clinton had all but clinched the nomination, and tensions between the two Democratic candidates peaked when Brown accused Clinton “funneling money to his wife’s law firm for state business.”

“I don’t care what you say about me, but you ought to be ashamed of yourself for jumping on my wife,” Clinton snapped, shaking his finger at his rival. “You’re not worth being on the same platform as my wife.” Clinton continued, saying Brown “comes here with his family wealth and his $1,500 suit and makes a lying accusation about my wife.”

"Which of you are ready to admit to having used marijuana?" — 2004

"Which of you are ready to admit to having used marijuana in the past?” asked CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the moderator of the 2003 ”Rock the Vote” debate in Boston.

”Yes,” said Sen. John Kerry. ”Yes,” said Sen. John Edwards. ”Yes,” said former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

In a sign of the times, these three baby boomer candidates didn’t bother explaining beyond their one-word answers. There were no caveats that they didn’t inhale or apologies for “youthful indiscretions.”

"A noun and a verb and 9/11." — 2008

Then-Sen. Joe Biden’s best zinger during a 2007 debate in Philadelphia wasn’t even about one of his Democratic rivals.

Asked if he was more qualified than Hillary Clinton, Biden responded with a full-throttle attack on former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, calling him the “most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency.”

“There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun and a verb and 9/11,” Biden said. “I mean, there’s nothing else. There’s nothing else.”

"Billiam the Snowman" — 2008

Social media made its primetime debut when CNN partnered with YouTube to sponsor a 2007 Democratic presidential debate. Of the 39 video questions, picked from nearly 3,000 online submissions, one came from a animated talking snowman asking about global warming.

“Billiam the Snowman” — the only non-human to make an appearance at a presidential debate — became one of the most enduring images of the South Carolina face-off. Some pundits decried the homemade video as too gimmicky. The Chicago Sun-Times, though, declared, “Snowman Wins.”

Billiam cast a chill over some Republicans, who were scheduled to get their own YouTube treatment. In fact, the GOP got cold feet and postponed the event, as Mitt Romney complained, “I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman.” Romney eventually caved.

"For someone who went to parochial schools all his life, this is a very frightening thing." — 2008

Rudy Giuliani was in the middle of responding to a question at the 2007 New Hampshire debate about a Rhode Island Catholic bishop who compared him to Pontius Pilate for his views on abortion, when lightning from a thunderstorm over Manchester zapped his microphone.

Chuckling, the candidate shuffled over to another podium with working audio. “Look, for someone who went to parochial schools all his life, this is a very frightening thing that’s happening right now,” he said.

"I saw something." — 2008

The truth is out there. Asked about his UFO sighting, described in an new book by pal Shirley MacLaine, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich readily offered his version of events.

“It was an unidentified flying object, OK? It’s, like, it’s unidentified,” he said during the 2007 Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia. “I saw something.”

Kucinich joked that he’d be moving his campaign headquarters to Roswell, New Mexico, the legendary home an alien spacecraft crash landing.”You have to keep in mind that more — that Jimmy Carter saw a UFO and also that more people in this country have seen UFOs than I think approve of George Bush’s presidency,” he said.

"You’re likable enough" — 2008

On a Democratic debate stage in first-in-the-nation primary state, a moderator asked then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, “What can you say to the voters of New Hampshire on this stage tonight who see a resume and like it, but are hesitating on the likability issue, where they seem to like Barack Obama more?”

“Well that hurts my feelings,” Clinton said, smiling broadly as the audience laughed. “But I’ll try to go on. He’s very likable — I agree with that. I don’t think I’m that bad.”

Obama, looking down at his notes, barely glanced at her when he leaned into his microphone and added, “You’re likable enough, Hillary.”