“We have fewer horses and bayonets than in 1916”

“My favorite answer was Barack Obama’s 2012 run-off against Mitt Romney,” writes Alain Des Coats, the theme of this blog’s second fundraising campaign in 2024, past debates between US candidates. Presidential election. The debate follows the Democratic president’s poor performance during his first fight against the Republican governor of Massachusetts. Obama set the Internet on fire by sarcastically responding to his rival’s claim that the U.S. Navy has never had fewer ships since 1917.

“Well, we have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed,” Obama said, as if speaking to a schoolboy. “We have what are called aircraft carriers, and the planes land on them. We have these submarines, nuclear powered submarines. It’s not a game of battleships, where you count ships,” he says, referring to the board game.

The expression “horses and bayonets” will spawn a thousand and one memes on the Internet. And in the eyes of an electorate that was disconnected and disoriented a few weeks ago, Obama is going to forget his poor performance in the first debate.

Thanks to Alain des Cotes and others for remembering this memorable repartee. Also, thank you to everyone who is allowing us to get closer to reaching our fundraising campaign goal in the next few hours. The thermometer opposite explains where we were on this Friday morning. Thank you to everyone who has already done their part to ensure the maintenance of this blog during this critical period in American political life.

(Photographs)