"[287] In February, his administration reversed the unpopular decision to send the United States Marine Corps to Lebanon, thus eliminating a political liability for him. Reagan faced minimal opposition in the Republican primaries,[288] and he and Bush accepted the nomination at the the Dallas convention in August.[289] In the general election, his campaign ran the commercial, "Morning in America".[290] At a time when the American economy was already recovering,[215] former vice president Walter Mondale[291] was attacked by Reagan's campaign as a "tax-and-spend Democrat", while Mondale criticized the deficit, the SDI, and Reagan's civil rights policy. However, Reagan's age induced his campaign managers to minimize his public appearances. Mondale's campaign believed that Reagan's age and mental health were issues before the October presidential debates.[292]
Following Reagan's performance in the first debate where he struggled to recall statistics, his age was brought up by the media in negative fashion, and some respondents reconsidered voting for him. Reagan's campaign changed his tactics for the second debate where he quipped, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."