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James Danforth Quayle (born February 4 , 1947 ) was the 44th Vice President Of The United States under George H. W. Bush ( 1989 - 1993 ). He unsuccessfully sought the 2000 Republican Party Presidential nomination. EARLY LIFE Quayle was born in to James C. Quayle and Corrine Pulliam Quayle. He has often been incorrectly referred to as James Danforth Quayle III. In his memoirs, he points out that his birth name was simply James Danforth Quayle. His maternal grandfather, Eugene C. Pulliam , was a wealthy and influential publishing Magnate who founded Central Newspapers, Inc., owner of over a dozen major newspapers such as the '' Arizona Republic '' and '' The Indianapolis Star ''. James C. Quayle moved his family to Arizona in 1955 to run a branch of family's publishing empire. After spending much of his youth in Arizona , he graduated from Huntington High School in Huntington, Indiana in 1965. He then matriculated at DePauw University , where he received his B.A. degree in Political Science in 1969 , and where he was a member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon . After receiving his degree, Quayle joined the Indiana National Guard and served from 1969 - 1975 . While serving in the Guard, he earned a Juris Doctor ( J.D. ) degree in 1974 at Indiana University School Of Law Indianapolis . Quayle's public service began in July 1971 when he became an investigator for the Consumer Protection Division of the Indiana Attorney General 's Office. Later that year, he became an administrative assistant to Governor Edgar Whitcomb . From 1973 - 1974 , he was the Director of the Inheritance Tax Division of the Indiana Department of Revenue. Upon receiving his law degree, Quayle worked as associate publisher of his family's newspaper, the '' Huntington Herald-Press '', and practiced law with his wife in Huntington. EARLY POLITICAL CAREER In 1976 , Quayle was elected to the U.S. Congress from Indiana's Fourth Congressional District , defeating an eight-term Incumbent Democrat . He won reelection in 1978 by the greatest percentage margin ever achieved to that date in the northeast Indiana district. In 1980 , at age 33, Quayle became the youngest person ever elected to the U.S. Senate from the State of Indiana , defeating three-term Incumbent Democrat Birch Bayh . Making Indiana political history again, Quayle was reelected to the Senate in 1986 with the largest margin ever achieved to that date by a candidate in a statewide Indiana race. During his tenure in the U.S. Senate , Quayle became widely known for his legislative work in the areas of defense, arms control, labor, and human resources. With his service on the Armed Services Committee , the Budget Committee, and the Labor and Human Resources Committee, he became an effective Senator, respected by colleagues on both sides of the aisle. In 1982 , working with Senator Edward Kennedy , Quayle authored the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). This was the only major Legislation that ever bore Quayle's name the entire time he served in both the House and the Senate . In 1986 , Quayle received much criticism from his fellow Senators for championing the cause of Daniel Manion , who was a candidate to be a federal judge. It was later revealed that Manion was a member of the John Birch Society and that the American Bar Association had evaluated him as unqualified. Manion was nominated for U. S. Court Of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by President Ronald Reagan on February 21, 1986, and confirmed by the Senate on June 26, 1986. VICE PRESIDENCY In August 1988 , at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana , George H. W. Bush called on Quayle to be his running mate in the general election. This decision was criticized by many who felt that Quayle did not have enough experience to be president should something happen to Bush. Questions were raised about Quayle's apparent use of family connections to get into the Indiana National Guard and thus avoid possible combat service in the Vietnam War . Many in the Media also portrayed him as a lightweight unable to handle the job. Criticism and ridicule of Quayle reached an apogee after the campaign's televised vice-presidential debate, in which Quayle compared his experience to that of Jack Kennedy when he became president. Democratic candidate Lloyd Bentsen said in Rebuttal , " Senator, I Served With Jack Kennedy. I Knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy Was A Friend Of Mine. Senator, You're No Jack Kennedy. " to which Quayle replied, "That was really uncalled for, Senator," as both applause and boos were heard from the debate audience. Quayle's reaction to Bentsen's comment was played and replayed by the Democrats in their subsequent television ads as an announcer intoned: "Quayle: just a heartbeat away." It proved sure-laugh fodder for comedians, and more and more political cartoons depicted Quayle as a child. The fracas, however, failed to derail the Republican campaign. Although Republicans were trailing by up to 15 points in public opinion polls taken prior to the convention, the Bush/Quayle ticket went on to win the November Election by a decisive 54-45 margin, sweeping 40 states and capturing 426 electoral votes. As Vice President, Quayle was the first chairman of the National Space Council , a space policy body reestablished by statute in 1988 . On February 9, 1989, President Bush named Quayle head of the Council On Competitiveness . In contrast with his successors, Vice Presidents Gore and Cheney , Quayle had a limited role in policymaking. He criticized the emerging Gangsta Rap movement, denouncing 2pac 's debut album '' 2pacalypse Now '' as having "no place in our society." Throughout his time as Vice President, Quayle was widely ridiculed in the media and by many in the general public, in both the USA and overseas, as a mental lightweight. One reason was that he sometimes made confused or garbled statements, although this tendency led to his being "credited" with apocryphal quotations. {Link without Title} His most famous blunder was when he corrected student William Figueroa's correct spelling of " Potato " as " Potatoe " at an elementary school Spelling Bee in Trenton, New Jersey , on June 15 , 1992 . Quayle was said to have been relying on a spelling-bee card on which the word had been misspelled by the teacher. The story became international news; Figueroa was a guest on Late Night With David Letterman and was asked to lead the pledge of allegiance at the 1992 Democratic National Convention . The event became a lasting part of Quayle's reputation. It was widely lambasted by comedians and commentators as a demonstration of his apparent stupidity. Quayle received the Satirical Ig Nobel Prize for "demonstrating, better than anyone else, the need for science education" in 1991 . Other critics facetiously remarked that he was a good reason for even Bush's critics to pray for his health (Quayle as President "is just a heartbeat away...") and that he was the only Vice President to make a President " Impeachment -proof." The misspelling incident remains a source of ridicule of Quayle. On season premiere of '' Murphy Brown '', Brown, the character, watched Quayle's comments on television and responded on the fictitious news show ''F.Y.I.''. Later in the episode, she hired a truck to dump a thousand potatoes on Quayle's doorstep. In 2002 , Candice Bergen , the actress who played Brown, said "I never have really said much about the whole episode, which was endless, but his speech was a perfectly intelligent speech about fathers not being dispensable and nobody agreed with that more than I did." Dan Quayle signed the statement of principles of the Project For The New American Century , a Neoconservative group. 1992 Election During the 1992 Election , Bush and Quayle were challenged in their bid for reelection by Democrats Gov. Bill Clinton and Sen. Al Gore . Quayle faced off against Gore in the vice-presidential debate, and, due in part to exceeding low expectations and staying on the offensive by tactics such as criticizing passages in Gore's book '' Earth In The Balance '', Quayle was generally seen to have at least tied Gore, faring much better than he had against Bentsen four years earlier. (During planning negotiations for the upcoming televised debates, Vice-President Quayle's team insisted that he be able to hold a copy of Gore's book for dramatic effect — the Gore team retorted that Gore ought to be able to hold up a potato.) Republicans were largely relieved and pleased, and Quayle's camp hailed his performance as an upset triumph against a veteran debater. However, like most vice-presidential debates it was ultimately a minor factor in the election, which Bush and Quayle would eventually lose. POST-VICE PRESIDENCY In April 1999 , he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the 2000 Presidential Election . In the first contest among the Republican candidates, the Iowa straw poll of August 1999 , he finished eighth. He withdrew from the race the following month. Quayle was out of the public eye by 2000. Dan Quayle is Chairman of the firm Cerberus Capital Management , a multi-billion dollar international Hedge Fund , and president of Quayle and Associates. He is an Honorary Trustee Emeriti of the Hudson Institute . Quayle also authored his memoir, ''Standing Firm'', which became a nationwide bestseller. His second book, ''The American Family: Discovering the Values that Make Us Strong'', came out in the spring of 1996 and ''Worth Fighting For'' came out in 1999. The former vice president also writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column, serves on a number of corporate boards, chairs several business ventures, and was chairman of Campaign America , a national Political Action Committee . Dan Quayle is the only Vice President to have a museum, The Dan Quayle Center And Museum in Huntington, Indiana. The museum features information on Quayle and all U.S. Vice Presidents. PERSONAL FACTS
ELECTORAL HISTORY
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