Vice President George H.W. Bush appeared “buoyant,” The Washington Post reported. It was the day after the 1984 vice-presidential debate, and most political strategists thought he had won it.

Now he was back on the campaign trail, meeting with longshoremen in New Jersey. He told one he had tried to “kick a little ass” at the debate.

A few hours later, a reporter who had caught his boast on a hot mic had a question.

“Did you say you kicked Geraldine Ferraro’s ass last night?”

As Walter Mondale’s running mate, New York Rep. Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman to debate while seeking national office. And Bush became the first incumbent vice president to learn that a little casual sexism, or even the appearance of it, wasn’t a great look on the debate stage. Now, California Sen. Kamala D. Harris will face off against Vice President Pence — only the third time a woman has done so as a vice-presidential candidate.

Vice-presidential debates were not standard back then. In fact, such a debate had happened only once before, in 1976. On one of her first days campaigning with running mate Walter Mondale, she publicly challenged Bush to two debates. Eventually his office agreed to one, in Philadelphia.

Bush was one of the most experienced men ever to be vice president and, later, president. He was a decorated World War II veteran, a former congressman, ambassador and director of the CIA.

By contrast, Ferraro had been a member of Congress for six years. But, like Harris, before Capitol Hill she had been a prosecutor.

Ferraro used those prosecutorial skills on the debate stage, taking notes and speaking slowly and calmly while challenging Bush on the Reagan administration’s domestic record. Bush seemed irritated, raising his voice when challenged and repeatedly calling her “Mrs.” Ferraro instead of “Congresswoman Ferraro.” (Like Harris, Ferraro was married but had kept her surname.)

Then the debate turned to foreign affairs, Bush’s area of expertise. When asked about the CIA, Ferraro was critical of some of the agency’s covert actions.

“I think I just heard Mrs. Ferraro say she would do away with all covert action,” Bush claimed, incorrectly. “And, if so, that has very serious ramifications, as the intelligence community knows. This is serious business. … But let me help you, Mrs. Ferraro, with the difference between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon.”

As Bush lectured, Ferraro took notes. Then she was asked for her rebuttal. Calmly, with a slight smile, she fixed her gaze on Bush and began.

“Let me just say, first of all, that I almost resent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to ‘teach me’ about foreign policy.” The audience began to applaud before she had finished the sentence. “I’ve been a member of Congress for six years, I was there when the embassy was held hostage in Iran. I have been there, and I have seen what has happened in the past several months, 17 months with your administration.

“Secondly, please don’t categorize my answers, either,” she continued, gesturing to the camera. “Leave the interpretation of my answers to the American people who are watching this debate.”

Vice President George H.W. Bush debated Democratic vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in Philadelphia on Oct. 11, 1984. (CSPAN)

When recalling the debate in 2016, broadcasting veteran Lynn Sherr told PBS: “I think that George Herbert Walker Bush felt it was beneath him to be debating this woman.”

Later, when journalist Robert Boyd asked whether Ferraro had any questions for Bush, she challenged him on nuclear disarmament. But when Boyd put the same request to Bush he waved it off, “I have none I’d like to ask her, but I’d sure like to use the time.” After an awkward silence, he went for a joke: “Talk about the World Series or something of that nature.”

Only Bush laughed.

In snap polling that night, there was a wide gender gap: Men thought Bush had won the debate, women thought Ferraro had. During debate prep, a group of outside experts had warned Bush: Do not patronize, and do not gloat.

Which brings us back to the reporter’s question to him on Oct. 12: “Did you say you kicked Geraldine Ferraro’s ass last night?”

Bush denied it at first, then when pressed, said, “I leaned over to a guy who gave me his assessment of the debate, and I will have to confess I whispered in his ear, I used an old Texas football expression. … And I don’t want to repeat it here.”

Years later, The Post’s Robert Hoffman reported that Bush thought the 1984 campaign was the worst time in his career, and its lowest moment was the debate.

Read more Retropolis: