At Politico, we love politics for some of the same reasons people love sports: the endless human drama.

Unlike a lot of people, of course, we don’t have the freedom — or, truth be told, the desire — to root for one side or the other to win. But we do have a clear preference for great characters and for watching how they react during moments of high pressure.

It was in this spirit that we sat down to ponder the 50 greatest political moments of the past 50 years.

Like all lists, ours is pretty random. We could have easily come up with other choices — and indeed, we left dozens on the cutting room floor....