n 1993, Vice President Al Gore took part in an unusual debate about trade: He went on Larry King's CNN show to spar with Ross Perot—the third-party candidate President Bill Clinton had beaten in the previous year's election—over the impending North American Free Trade Agreement. During the campaign, Perot had warned that NAFTA would create a “giant sucking sound” as high-paying manufacturing jobs drained out of the country. About a year later, Clinton was trying to push it through, and so Gore was dispatched to debate NAFTA's most high-profile opponent.
Most observers concluded that Gore won handily. But he didn't convincingly put away Perot's arguments; instead, he took his opponent down with a lot of cheap rhetorical tricks—most especially, baiting Perot's notorious temper by constantly interrupting him. Perot's peevish “Could I finish?” was turned into a punch line by comedian Dana Carvey, and that was that. It was a tactical success for Clinton, who wanted to build a new base for his party among the executive and financier class and high-income voters. NAFTA was eventually approved by the Senate and signed into law by Clinton on December 8, 1993.
