a “modern” politician simply cannot ever do: give comedians a reason to make fun of him

The problem is he didn’t. Go back and look. Republican Party twisted his words and successfully made the twisted version into the popular narrative. That’s also a time tested political trick, but when it’s not what you actually said, you have no control over it.

The only thing that would have worked then was out-blustering his opponents, turn something else into the meme of the day…it’s a very powerful trick for getting elected, but really not one we should reward in a national leader