Potatoe. There can be few stranger or sadder legacies that have haunted a political figure than that which has dogged former vice-president Dan Quayle. Every profile, every late night talk back show appearance and every opposition attack still seems to draw reference to the day years ago when a campaigning Mr Quayle took the initiative and wrongly corrected the blackboard efforts of a winner of a primary school spelling competition.
For many, it confirmed the view of the man as a bumbler and fool who should never make it all the way to the White House. Few modern political figures have been so lampooned.
And this week it became an epitaph as Mr Quayle pulled out of the campaign to win the Republican nomination to run for president next year. He cited a lack of funds against the monolithic war-chest of George W Bush, the son of the man who plucked him from relative obscurity as a running mate in 1988.
Mr Quayle had managed to gather about US$4 million (HK$31 million) over the past six months. Mr Bush the younger is sitting on a pile already estimated at a record $52 million.
Mr Quayle had always promised his most loyal supporters he would not waste their time if he felt he really had no chance to win the nomination race. That moment has arrived and he has left with a quiet dignity. It could be the end of a long political career.
Whatever they say about him - and they say quite a bit - Mr Quayle remained an earnest optimist until the very end.
