Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Who am I, why am I in a coffin?

Or

Deadlock!

James Bond Stockdale, who supplanted Dan Quayle as the comic relief in the 1992 vice presidential debate, has died at the age of 81. Admiral Stockdale was a naval pilot who flew the first bombing raid in North Vietnam and had flown 201 missions when he was shot down in 1965. He spent more than 7 years in Vietnamese prison camps, enduring near fatal injuries rather than provide information to his captors, which was noted in his citation for winning the Medal of Honor in 1976. Reform Party Candidate Ross Perot tapped the American hero as his VP candidate, but Stockdale was not comfortable with the spotlight, and his stumbling performance, opening with the question, “Who am I? Why am I here?,” turning off his hearing aid during the debate and providing the rare admission he had nothing to add to the debate, became late-night comic fodder for weeks.


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