Originally Posted by Janszoon

Basically, during his presidential run his opponents were portraying him as weak and out of touch with the military. He felt he needed to do something to make himself look tougher and whatnot and so he arranged this photo-op of him riding around in a tank. The problem was that the helmet and everything looked ridiculous on him and made him look like a little kid playing dress up. The whole plan completely backfired and in the end only served to undermine his credibility in the eyes of voters. To this day the incident is the point of comparison for failed political PR moves in American politics.