"There you go again" was a phrase spoken during the 1980 United States presidential election debate by Republican presidential candidate Governor Ronald Reagan to his Democratic opponent, incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Reagan would use the line in a few debates over the years, always in a condescending way intended to disarm his opponent.[1]
"There you go again" emerged as a single defining phrase of the 1980 presidential election.[2] The phrase has endured in the political lexicon in news headlines, as a way to quickly refer to various presidential candidates' bringing certain issues up repeatedly during debates, or to Reagan himself.[3]
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The one debate between Reagan and Carter of the 1980 presidential year was held a week before the election by the League of Women Voters. As Carter went on the offensive against Reagan's record regarding Medicare, Reagan replied with "There you go again."[4] In 1984, Reagan's opponent Walter Mondale came prepared with a reply in case Reagan used the line again, which he did.[5] However, Reagan disarmed Mondale with another line, in which he took the issue of his own age off the table by saying he wouldn't hold Mondale's "youth and inexperience" against him.
The Associated Press wrote in 2008:
Reagan would sometimes use the phrase during his presidential press conferences.[7]
During the 2006 Connecticut Democratic Senate Primary Debate, Incumbent Senator Joe Lieberman used the line a number of times against his primary challenger Ned Lamont. During the 2008 vice-presidential debate, Republican vice-presidential nominee, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, used the line on Democratic opponent Joe Biden.[6] Both Lieberman and Palin lost those races; however, Lieberman went on to defeat Lamont in the general election running as an Independent.