well no one ever said the road to the white house was smooth. as republican candidates prepare for their first debate later today, cnn s jeanne moos looks back at those moments from previous debates that make you say oops. reporter: we tend to watch debates, hoping to see a trainwreck. instead we re left with memorable moments. sarah palin winking. how long have i been at this? like five weeks? reporter: ronald reagan demand k the sound system not being turned off. i am paying for this microphone mr. speaker. reporter: a line he picked up don t you shut me off. i m paying for this broadcast. reporter: from spencer tracy in the film state of the union. tv magnifies everything. from the sweat glistening on nixon s chin that he had to wipe
cnn, reunion island. short time ago australia s deputy prime minister said it looked very likely the debris found on reunion island maybe from a boeing 777. cnn s david molko has been listening to that news conference and is joining us live from hong kong. david, good to have you with us. the deputy prime minister is urging caution. waiting for french investigators to give the final word on the piece of debris but he said the simple fact it washed ashore on reunion island is consistent with regards to their current modeling of where debris could have traveled. that s right. she using words like very confident, very likely. we have heard that from malaysia s prime minister. we heard it from the top investigator in australia. but he said something else. and that is we have to be sure of the facts. george there s no room for error here. they have to be 100% sure of where this piece of debris is coming from.
answers of why this happened can only be determined on the ground. cnn, los angeles. and we ve more on the debris found on the coast of reunion island. meteorologist derek van dam joins us with more. derek, is it even feasible that mh370 debris could have traveled this far across the indian ocean? lynda, it is a reasonable question indeed. in fact we have to dig deep into this flaperon piece that they purportedly found, belonging to mh370. it is a device on the airplane that is highly buoyant. i researched this. we know this thing will float. when it enters the ocean currents known as a gyre it will allow the debris it travel
director at airline ratings.com. he is joining us from perth, australia. good to have you with us. given the singular piece of wreckage what can investigators determine from it? george it s probably a little early to say precisely other than the fact that this piece of wreckage has turned up where they expected it to drift to. the university of western australia did a drift analysis that we discussed on cnn over 12 months ago that showed after 12 13 months time the debris would with whatever debre there was from this crash would turn up in this particular part of the world. that s based on the fact that the plane crashed where we believe it did in the southern indian ocean.
yeah or sat over time, like in the ocean, and came off. we saw serial numbers on the flaperon what will that help with? it is a whole assembly. it is possible there is a lot of serial numbers, part numbers even for individual pieces or it could refer to all, you know larger assembly such as the plap flaperon. and authorities ascending the debris from that plane to france for closer inspection. the families of those on board mh370 are reacting cautiously to the latest developments. cnn s christie joins us with more on that. christie with be tho doubt a trying time for the families who are missing loved ones. what are they saying to you about this latest development? reporter: they are sayinging that it is a very trying time. it is a long and agonizing wait for the families of the passengers on board missing malaysian airlines flight mh370.