American politician, Vice-President of the U.S. under George Bush. Quayle is rich, handsome and privileged but as Vice President and political campaigner suffered from an image problem, that of being a “male bimbo;” someone lacking intellectual depth. His publicly uttered malapropisms and foot-in-mouth blunders have been oft repeated, sometimes with great hilarity. As a political candidate, Quayle courted the votes of the conservative wing of the Republican party. His major concern in conservative circles is his opinion on American “family values.” He wrote a self-effacing memoir, “Standing Firm” in 1994.
Quayle was born into a publishing family with a fortune estimated at $1 billion. His family moved to Phoenix, Arizona when he was eight-years old. In 1963, the Quayle’s returned to Huntington, Indiana. He graduated from Huntington High School in 1965. He received his B.A. from DePauw University in 1969. With the help of connections, he joined the National Guard in 1969, avoiding military combat. He attended Indiana University Law School and managed to pull in “C-average” grades. In law school he majored in golf as his grades were mediocre. He managed to graduate in 1974 and practiced law with his wife, Marilyn Tucker Quayle.
In 1976, Quayle ran for U.S. congressional seat in Indiana. Two years later he won re-election. In 1980, Quayle ran for and won the Indiana senatorial seat and was re-elected in 1986. A favorite of the conservatives in the GOP, George Bush named Dan Quayle to his ticket for the presidential run on 16 August 1988. Quayle’s troubles with the media and late night comics started on the day of his first press conference as Bush’s running mate when he displayed a “deer-caught-in-the-headlights” look, an impression that hurt his chances of political success. He gave nervous stammering replies about his ducking the Vietnam War in favor of six years National Guard service. James Baker wanted to dump Quayle off the ticket after the disastrous press conference but Bush remained confident in Dan’s abilities as his vice presidential candidate. After Bush was elected in November 1988, Quayle showed remarkable ability in keeping comedians Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and David Letterman supplied with his quotes.
During the 1992 elections, many political pundits believed Bush would drop Quayle in favor of a strong vice-presidential candidate. During the campaign, he visited the spelling bee contest in a New Jersey grammar school class and mis-spelled “potato” reinforcing his dim-bulb reputation. Quayle blamed the loss of the 1992 elections to a poorly planned and executed incumbent presidential campaign. In 1999, Quayle announced his plans to run for the GOP presidential nomination.
Quayle met his wife, Marilyn Tucker when they were both law school students at Indiana University. The couple married ten weeks after their first date, on 18 November 1972. She was the daughter of two hard-working physicians. The couple’s son Tucker was born in 1975, son Ben in 1977 and daughter Corrine in 1979. The family moved to Paradise Valley, Arizona in order to appeal to the GOP constituency in the West for the 2000 presidential elections. Quayle is an avid golfer.
A hard-line conservative, he has been winning public office elections since he was 29, despite his glorious talent for putting his foot in his mouth with quotes that often come off as remarkably lightweight, ranging from inept to inane.
Link to Wikipedia biography