Tag Archives: politicos

A McGovern Postcard

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Here’s another recently acquired postcard, one from a very specific moment in U.S. history, a good many elections ago.

McGovernObvMcGovernRevIt was never used for its intended purpose, namely being put in the mail in the service of the McGovern campaign. Not that it would have made any difference to the outcome; not that a million such cards, all mailed, would have made any difference.

I don’t think I’ve seen any presidential campaign cards in recent years, or ever, come to think of it, but more local races still use them. I’m already getting postcard-based claims and counterclaims from candidates for the Illinois State House. I expect more in the coming months.

A particularly memorable example of postcard campaigning was in 2004. As I wrote then, “[Phil Crane] was also the subject of one of the most brilliant direct-mail campaigns I’ve ever seen in politics. Almost every day for about 10 days before the election, we received a large postcard, paid for by the state Democratic Party, all featuring the same picture of Rep. Crane photoshopped onto a variety of backgrounds.

“Each card had a different headline, and backgrounds to match, along with Phil in the foreground in a different outfit: GREETINGS FROM COSTA RICA (tropics, him in a floral t-shirt)… SCOTLAND (golf course, him with clubs)… ROME (Coliseum, him with a camera around his neck)… etc. The point being that Rep. Crane was fond of junkets at lobbyists’ expense. ‘Junket King’ was on several of the cards, too.”

Former Rep. Crane died in 2014. One thing I didn’t know about him was his role in Singapore easing its ban on chewing gum, which was in effect when we were there.

I’ve Been Around for a Long, Long Year

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Merriam-Webster has an interesting feature on its web site, “Trending Now,” referring to words in the online version of the dictionary whose look-up rates have increased. The other day I noticed that “Lucifer” was No. 1 (with a bullet? Maybe a pitchfork).

The dictionary explains that, “Lucifer rose up from the depths of the dictionary on April 29th, 2016, (spiking approximately 7700% over the previous day’s lookups) on the heels of news reports that former Speaker of the House John Boehner had referred to Senator Ted Cruz as ‘Lucifer in the flesh’ while speaking at Stanford University earlier in the week.”

You’d think that Lucifer would be a fairly familiar name. One of the classics. It’s not like Boehner called him the Beelzebub of the Stump or Astaroth in a Suit and Tie. Maybe people were investigating the nuances. Sure they were. Anyway, the dictionary continued: “Lucifer has been in the English language for a very long time, and has not solely carried the meaning of ‘Satan.’ The word comes from a Latin root — lucifer, in Latin, means ‘light-bearing’ — and has also been used by poets to refer to Venus, the morning star.

“Although it is possible that Boehner was making a muted classical reference, and intended to characterize Cruz as a bearer of light, this seems unlikely, as he in the same talk referred to the senator by another turn of phrase which is incompatible with this imagery.”

Heh-heh. Not a bad turn of insult, Mr. Boehner, delivered (as it turned out) toward the end of a dying campaign. Whatever the merits of either of those politicos, modern American politics needs more clever invective, like we had in the 19th century. We have plenty of invective now, of course, but especially during this campaign season, it’s as dumbed down as can be.

Trump’s Manhood for VP?

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Almost warm enough to sit out on the deck and eat lunch, but not quite. Not even when the wind dies down. Weather prognostication tells me that it will in fact be springtime warm by the end of the week. All I can say is, it’s about time.

Every now and then I return to Paddypower to look at the election odds. U.S. elections aren’t the only ones the Irish bookies care about, of course. Irish and British politics are betworthy as well, such as the odds on the vote in the UK in June to leave the EU. It’s predicted to be close: 45% to 50% voting to leave, which isn’t enough, 9/4. 50% to 55% voting to leave, which is, 9/4.

As for the U.S. presidential elections, Hillary Clinton’s still the favorite at 2/5, a gain for her compared with January. Donald Trump, at 6/1, has seen a considerable slip. Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders both are 11/1, a slip for Sanders and no change for Cruz.

Vice presidential nominees now have odds. On the Republican side, John Kasich is the favorite to be tapped for the job, at 11/4, with Chris Christie (4/1), Nikki Haley (5/1) and Marco Rubio (8/1) coming next. On the Democratic side, Julian Castro is the favorite at 5/2, with Tim Kaine (junior Senator from Virginia) at 5/1, Elizabeth Warren at 7/1 and Martin O’Malley at 9/1.

The real oddity is a bet called “Trump’s Manhood.” According to the bookies, that “applies to the size of Donald Trump’s manhood when ‘standing to attention.’ Bets will be void if it is not revealed by end of 2016. PP Decision Final.” They must have had fun thinking that up. I refuse to quote the odds.

Wisconsin, Home of Funny Hats

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Various presidential candidates have been stumping just north of here recently, and when I opened Google News this morning, a Washington Post item, complete with Mars Cheese Castle photo, was prominent. I’ve never seen the junior Senator from Texas in person, but I have seen that cheesehead mouse.

The Senator reportedly declined to wear a cheesehead. Wearegreenbay.com quoted him as saying “there is an ironclad rule of politics which is no funny hats… And any hat is by definition defined as a funny hat.”

This from the man who wants to (ultimately) be in charge of the Bureau of Funny Hats, which is part of the Commerce Department, along with the Silly Walks Administration. I don’t think Ronald Reagan was afraid to wear funny hats.

Pappy Lee O’Daniel

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The day after I visited LBJ’s boyhood home, I discovered this tucked away at my mother’s house.

Pappy Lee O'DanielIt’s a campaign card for W. Lee O’Daniel. It’s clear that it dates from his first run for governor of Texas, which was in 1938. Why my mother kept this, I couldn’t say. I don’t remember her ever saying anything about “Pappy” Lee O’Daniel, and in any case she herself never voted for him, since she wasn’t old enough.

On the back are the lyrics to three stanzas of “Beautiful Texas,” a song pretty much lost to time, but written by W. Lee O’Daniel, the singing, flour-making governor of Texas from 1938 (he won the election and re-election two years later) to 1941, when he became a U.S. Senator by being the only person to best LBJ in an election (not counting 1960 primaries). All in all, one of Texas’ more interesting governors.

Beautiful Texas by Pappy Lee O'DanielIf he sounds familiar, it’s because the Coen brothers borrowed the name, an association with flour, and hillbilly music for the governor of Mississippi character played memorably by Charles Durning in O Brother Where Art Thou?

Why? Because they’re the Coen brothers. Presumably they were amused by the idea of a flour-merchant governor with hillbilly music on his side. For a couple of gentlemen from Minnesota, that shows a remarkably granular interest in Texas history, even if they put the fictional Pappy in an alt-universe, Coen brothers-flavored Mississippi.

“Moral fiber? I invented moral fiber! Pappy O’Daniel was displaying rectitude and high-mindedness when that egghead you work for was still messing his drawers!” — the fictional Pappy O’Daniel.

All My Eye and Betty Martin, Thursday Edition

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Sure enough, more snow yesterday. But not much more, and most of it melted today. The snowfall didn’t even mess up the roads very much. Or my driveway. If you don’t have to shovel it, you can’t say it really snowed.

Been reading more by the chattering classes than usual lately, maybe because they’re chattering a lot now. With some reason. There’s also a sizable share of hyperventilating Chicken Little-ism about the political rise the short-fingered vulgarian. He’s going to be the end of Republican party! Of movement conservatism! Of American democracy! Of truth, justice and the American way!

I have to be skeptical on all counts. Of course, I could be wrong, and I’ll be the first to admit it as soon as goons come to take me to one of the detention camps of the new order.

This is some hard candy Yuriko brought back from Japan last month. Or rather, these are images of the Gold Coin of the Meiji Era tin, front and back. We’ve almost finished the candy inside.

Gold Coin of the Meiji EraGold Coin of the Meiji EraThe candy, which is roundish and yellow, is pretty good, but I like the name best of all. The coin pictured on the tin isn’t some fanciful latter-day re-creation, but an image of an actual gold coin of the Meiji era, just like this one, dated 1870 (Meiji 3). Except that the one on the tin is a 20-yen piece, rather than two yen.

Quite a bit of money at the time, and a coin of great beauty, from the looks of the photo. I wouldn’t mind having one, but it isn’t something I want to spend big bucks for. I’ll settle for the Meiji-era copper two-sen coin that I do have, which only cost a few modern dollars.

One more thing along these lines: We cast pearls before swine. The Japanese give gold coins to cats: 猫に小判 (neko ni koban).

And one more coffee cup currently on our shelf.

Oh ShitLilly got that from a friend of hers for Christmas this year. Ha-ha. It reminds me that adults should not use that word. In fact, anyone older than about six or seven should steer clear of it. Certain words should be confined to little children, and that’s one of them. Yet I’ve seen poop used in more-or-less serious writing by people whom I assume are grown. Knock it off.

Coffee Makes Me Crap would be the slogan for short-fingered vulgarians, maybe. Funnier would be Decaf Makes Me Defecate. I don’t drink coffee anyway. Better for me would be Tea Makes Me Pee. True indeed.

Over the Transom Thursday

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Got another political robocall yesterday, but it was a first: a fellow running for a seat on the local water reclamation board, bemoaning the condition of the local water system. The subtext of his call: You don’t want to end up like Flint, do you? DO YOU? Vote for me, the clean water candidate.

Next thing I know, someone running for the Northwest Mosquito Abatement District board will call, stressing his mosquito-fighting chops because ZIKA VIRUS is going to ATTACK YOUR BABIES. (Never mind that the species of mosquitoes best able to transmit the virus aren’t found in Illinois.)

No, that won’t happen. The mosquito board is appointed, not elected. Shoot.

I don’t remember where I got this Bernie flier. Maybe when I was downtown last month, someone handed it to me, and I found it in one of my pockets later.
FeeltheBernThe shape isn’t quite rectangular. It has the shape of paper cut quickly, en masse, on a cutting board.

I also found this bookmark recently. There’s a 2011 copyright on the other side, so it’s probably been kicking around the house a while. Published by the Elks, it looks like something that gets handed out in elementary schools.

heroesSure, heroes don’t use drugs and alcohol (but just what’s in Super Chicken’s super sauce?). I don’t know about that Elk on the left, either. Looks a little pixilated to me.

Another Round of Thursday Bagatelle

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I saw Travels With My Aunt (1972) not long ago. Like a fair number of movies, I’d have to say that the book is better, though the movie wasn’t bad. Then again, I’ve forgotten most of the book, since I read it at least 25 years ago.

I was startled to see Cindy Williams as the young American on the Orient Express. She was merely a young actress at the time, but even so I kept expecting to see Penny Marshall show up. Such is the conditioning effect, even after 40 years, of mediocre sitcoms; you just can’t get rid of them. Yet even that show had a few charms, which are best watched in the form of a YouTube video collections of Lenny & Squiggy entrances. Or if you like, the setups and then their entrances. The two were the butt of essentially the same joke for years.

Apparently Teen Spirit deodorant is a real thing. I saw some at a dollar store a while ago. I had no idea is was an actual product. Entertainment lore has it that the product inspired the song name, not the other way around. On its label it promised a “girly” smell.

Naturally the Greek exhibit at the Field Museum ended with a gift shop. We poked around and I found a small owl statue for Yuriko, who’s fond of owls, but I didn’t find any postcards. I asked the clerk about it, and she posited that note cards, which the shop carried, would sell better. Nuts to that.

Someone will be the new President of the United States a year from now, so I took a look at the oddsmakers at Paddypower. That outfit calls itself “Ireland’s biggest, most successful, security conscious and innovative bookmaker.”

Hillary Clinton remains the favorite, according to Irish bookies: 5/6. Much more astonishingly, at least in historical terms, Donald Trump is next at 7/2. Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders are at 6/1. Ted Cruz, 11/1. Jeb Bush’s many donors must be steamed that he’s 22/1. Chris Christie, 33/1. Somehow Mitt Romney is 100/1, same as Paul Ryan. Guess the scenario there is a brokered convention with either of those jamokes selected. In the can’t-get-anyone-to-notice them category are John Kasich, 125/1, and Martin O’Malley, 150/1.

I won’t bother with the others, except Rocky De La Fuente, at 300/1. Most Americans don’t know him, but I do, though I hadn’t realized he was in the race. He’s a real estate developer from San Diego, so I suppose that makes him the lesser-known real estate mogul running for president (the anti-Trump, and as a Democrat, in point of fact). I don’t know anything about his politics, but I will say he’s got a fun presidential name.

Otis B. Driftwood for Congress Robocall

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Got the first campaign robocall of the election the other day, ahead of the Illinois primary on March 15. It happened to be supporting one of the Republican candidates running for that party’s nomination for the 8th Congressional District. Currently Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat, represents the district, but she’s not up for re-election, so it’s an open seat. Duckworth wants the Democratic nomination for Senate, to have a go at unseating U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk come November.

The following is the kind of thing I like to look up. Quick: how many U.S. Senators from Illinois were members of the Whig party during their terms? None.

But Illinois has had seven U.S. Representatives who were Whigs, most famously Abraham Lincoln. Ballotpedia, at least, lists Elihu B. Washburne as the last Whig Congressman from Illinois, serving from 1853 to 1869, but that’s cheating a little, since he was famed as a Radical Republican leader during Reconstruction. Guess he started out as a Whig, as many Republicans did.

Another tangent: Albert P. Forsythe, Congressman from Illinois from 1879 to 1881, is listed by Ballotpedia as a member of the Greenback Party. Can’t say you hear too much about them any more, though they did support radical ideas for the Gilded Age, such as the 8-hour day.

Anyway, let’s call our robocalling candidate Otis B. Driftwood. The following is the text of his call, using that name, preserved here for posterity (if any).

I’m Otis B. Driftwood, and I’m running for Congress as a Republican in the 8th District to replace Representative Duckworth with a conservative. I’m pro-life and support gun rights. I will vote to lower taxes and build a southern wall to protect our borders. Please visit DriftwoodforCongress.com to learn more about my campaign. I’m Otis B. Driftwood and this message was paid for an authorized by the Otis B. Driftwood for Congress Committee.

Note the harebrained policy position that probably wouldn’t have been mentioned six months ago. Wonder how that got in there.

Recent Bumper Sticker Sightings

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Next year’s election is all still talk, though more strangely entertaining than most year-before politicking. Hints of it are appearing outside the chattering classes, though.

Spotted a 2016 political bumper sticker the other day, one advocating the candidacy of the junior Senator from Texas. I’d guess his supporters are a little thin on the ground here in Illinois, but there have to be some. I’ve seen more stickers around here late this year supporting the Senate’s token socialist.

Another sticker on the same car said Marriage = Man Outline + Woman Outline, which might have been there awhile, growing ever more quixotic. Also, a sticker indicated that the owner used to be a Marine. And finally, one urged GO VEGAN. Make what you will of all that.