[Hoot Gibson]

Hoot alluded to this one in another thread. The moral of this story is: If you're the leading candidate for your party's presidential nomination and you're one of the rising stars in national politics, DON'T MONKEY AROUND!!!  

Gary Hart, a US Senator from Colorado for 12 years, ran for president in 1988, and was topping the polls in Democratic primaries. However, amid swirling rumors of extramarital affairs,  Hart challenged reporters to follow him around, saying that they would be bored. John Chancellor's response:  "We did, and we weren't."

Hart was photographed on a 83 ft. luxury yacht, named "Monkey Business"(couldn't make this stuff up), with a lovely woman by the name of Donna Rice sitting in his lap. The Monkey was out of the bag. Hart withdrew from the race a few days later.

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The George H. W. Bush "Read my lips. No new taxes." line was not a blunder, but letting Bob Dole convince him to agree to a tax hike after he promised not to raise taxes was a huge blunder. I believe that it cost him the election. It's hard to imagine in today's environment that one broken promise could cost a candidate the presidency, but Bush spent the entire campaign on the defensive. IIRC, Bush's job approval rating was over 80 percent at one point.

Yep. Peaked at 92% . Was steady in the 80-90% range in the months following 9/11.

George H. W. Bush's popularity spiked after the successful first Gulf War. He peaked too soon at an 89% job approval rating and then torpedoed himself with Dole's help.

That photo of Gary Hart and Donna Rice looks like they were posing for the camera.