Within minutes of the words coming out of President Obama’s mouth on Monday, the Internets asploded once again creating a meme from a presidential debate. Here’s what caused the reaction this time:
President Obama: “I think Governor Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works. You — you mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets — because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.
Seemingly instantly, @obamasbayonetts was a Twitter account (although, no tweets have been sent as of this writing). There were also two different Tumblr accounts (here and here) having fun with the President’s memorable one-liner. After Big Bird’s mention at the first presidential debate and the “binders full of women” remark of debate number two, perhaps it was just inevitable that the third debate would get a meme all of its own.
But where did that “horses and bayonets” line come from? Was it written in advance? (Almost certainly.) Did President Obama come up with it as Obama campaign senior adviser David Plouffe insisted (Maaaaybe, but probably not.) Or did the germ of that joke actually come from a certain comedian turned U.S. senator?








