( CNN ) -- Speaking off the cuff is always a bit of a tightrope act for the occupant of the nation 's highest office , and even more so when it 's in front of a room of reporters . President Barack Obama teetered on that high wire Thursday when he said that he and his advisers `` do n't have a strategy yet '' for dealing with ISIS in Syria . The comment , which set off an instant firestorm of commentary , seemed to feed into the narrative cultivated by critics of the President that he has no coherent strategy . `` Obama has given up even 'leading from behind , ' `` Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus tweeted . `` Now , as the world watches , he insists he has no strategy at all . '' Obama 's no 'strategy yet ' comment sparks a political uproar . Here are a few times when other U.S. politicians found themselves in similar territory : . President George H.W . Bush and the 'amazing ' supermarket scanner . Born into a wealthy family , schooled at an elite Massachusetts boarding school and then Yale , the nation 's 41st President had more than a couple of strikes against him when it came to an elitist , out-of-touch public image . Whether the image was true or not , it was driven deeper into the public consciousness after a widely mocked 1992 encounter with a mock-up of a grocery store scanner . Media accounts of the encounter said the President appeared to be `` amazed '' and `` bewildered '' by the technology , which by then had long been in common use. `` 'If some guy came in and spelled George Bush differently , could you catch it ? ' the President asked 'Yes , ' he was told , and he shook his head in wonder , '' wrote Andrew Rosenthal in The New York Times . The mythology has some flaws , Bush defenders say . According to an Associated Press article published not long after the encounter , the scanner 's manufacturer defended the President , saying the scanner actually was pretty advanced for its day . `` The whole thing is ludicrous , '' the AP quoted the company man as saying . `` What he was amazed about was the ability of the scanner to take that torn label and reassemble it . '' President Jimmy Carter and the 'malaise ' speech . Carter never uttered the word `` malaise '' in his July 15 , 1979 , televised address on what he saw as a growing `` crisis of confidence '' in the country . But it , perhaps more than any other single word , came to describe Carter 's presidency . Here 's what he actually said : . `` It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will . We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation . '' And , he warned , it 's `` threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America . '' The speech did n't go over well with many who saw Carter as an ineffective hand-wringer who had no business possessing the inspirational bully pulpit of the presidency . Historian Sean Wilentz wrote in his 2008 book , `` The Age of Reagan '' that Carter `` appeared to be abdicating his role as leader and blaming the people themselves for their own afflictions . '' `` It was a form of anti-politics unlike any Americans had ever seen -- the chief magistrate , who was supposed to inspire the nation and lift it out of its slough of despond , was instead complaining about unrelieved anguish and emptiness , '' Wilentz wrote . But , like Bush 's grocery store moment , the narrative had a flip side . According to author Kevin Mattson , Carter 's approval ratings jumped after the speech , and mail poured into the White House from citizens who wrote they were moved to action by the speech and what they saw as refreshing honesty from a politician . President Ronald Reagan and the 'bomb ' joke . Making a voice check before his regular weekend radio speech at the height of the Cold War in August 1984 , Reagan joked , `` My fellow Americans , I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever . The bombing begins in five minutes . '' While it was just a joke made by a man well-known for his love of quips and never meant for public consumption , the comment embodied beliefs among critics of Reagan as a dangerous hawk obsessed with doing battle against an `` Evil Empire , '' his finger eagerly hovering over the trigger of America 's nuclear arsenal . Al Gore and the Internet . Ask anyone about Gore these days , and you 're likely to hear about one of two things : His concern about climate change and how he purportedly claimed in 1999 to have invented the Internet . While Gore was only vice president at the time , he was thinking about running for the President 's job , and the statement helped saddle him with an image as pompous and self-aggrandizing . Like Carter and the `` malaise '' speech , Gore never used the word , `` invented . '' This is what he actually said , during an interview on CNN : `` During my service in the United States Congress , I took the initiative in creating the Internet . '' Many techies took Gore 's side , saying that while neither he nor any other single person created the Internet , he was , in fact instrumental in helping build out Internet infrastructure . But tech nerds were no match for the power of late-night television jokesters or , ironically , the power of the budding Internet . To wit , even today , you can still find the claim all over the Internet . Michael Dukakis and the ( cold ) death penalty response . It happened on October 13 , 1988 , during a presidential debate between Dukakis and then-Vice President George Bush . The mediator , CNN anchorman Bernard Shaw , asked Dukakis that if his wife were raped and murdered , if he thought he 'd support the death penalty for the killer . `` No , I do n't , Bernard , and I think you know that I 've opposed the death penalty during all of my life . I do n't see any evidence that it 's a deterrent , and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime , '' he said coolly . In the debate 's press room , reporters instantly declared Dukakis ' campaign dead , Roger Simon wrote in a 2007 Politico piece . `` He 's through , '' they said , according to Simon . `` That 's all she wrote . '' `` Get the hook ! '' Even Dukakis ' campaign manager knew it was over , Simon wrote : `` When he answered by talking policy , I knew we had lost the election , '' Simon quoted Susan Estrich as saying later . CNN research librarian Toby Lyles contributed to this report .
President Bush is n't alone in making comments that feed others ' narratives . It happened to President George W . Bush at a supermarket scanner in 1992 . Fallout from President Jimmy Carter 's ` ` malaise '' speech helped end his time in office . And what about President Ronald Reagan joking about bombing Russia ?