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Bizarre Election Year Facts- In 1884 Grover Cleveland's
campaign was dogged by accusations that the candidate had fathered an illegitimate child due to the fact that Cleveland had
made payments to an unwed woman who fathered a child named Oscar Folsom Cleveland. The woman was rumored to have been involved
with several men, including Cleveland's best friend Oscar Folsom. (Not a bad call by the woman to throw Cleveland's
name in there, after all, there was no NBA at the time). Oh, and by the way, Cleveland was a bachelor at the time, and events
make it more likely that he was covering for his married pal. However, if Cleveland did have an illegitimate great great-grandson,
we can only assume that it was golfer Craig Stadler:
- In the 1852 version of "Swift-Boating", presidential
candidate and eventual fourteenth president Franklin Pierce was challenged on his record as a general during the Mexican-American
War by his Whig opponents, who claimed that he was a hopeless drunkard who fainted in battle;
- In 1962, Democratic
operative Dick Tuck (not a stage name), orchestrated a photo opportunity with then gubernatorial candidate Richard Nixon and
some Chinese-American businessmen. Unbeknownst to Nixon, the sign held up by the businessmen was written to read "What
about the Hughes loan?" referring to a controversial loan made by Howard Hughes to Nixon's brother. In the turnabout
is fair play file, the sign actually read "What about the huge loan?" which, to be fair could mean anything. The
real significance of the episode is, of course; if the man who re-established diplomatic relations with Red China, a Democratic
trickster orchestrating the event, and several Chinese businessmen couldn't read the sign, what does that say
about the meaning of the ever-popular Chinese symbol-tattoos favored by professional athletes? Jeez, those things could mean
anything. For more on Tricky Dick Tuck: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/08/30/040830ta_talk_miller
- At the 1976 Democratic convention, Jimmy Carter referred to the recently deceased party lion Hubert Horatio
Humphrey as Hubert Horatio Hornblower. Hornblower? Really? Upon first review, the question is begged: Who goes to
their party's convention high, knowing that they're going to have to speak? It is a well-documented fact
that the teleprompter was correct and the gaffe fell entirely upon the shoulders of our nation's ambassador to Hamas.
The Freudian truth in this seemingly inexplicable error is a bit more complex. Although Humphrey was publicly hailed by Carter
as a great Democratic statesman who, by all rights, should have been president, he, along with his staff held a much lower
opinion of the man in private and the misstatement at the convention was more a matter of the revelation of a private nickname
on the most public of stages rather than a slip of the tongue.
- In the interest of bipartisanship, it must be noted
that Ronald Reagan proclaimed at the 1988 Republican Convention that "Facts are Stupid Things." During a speech
nominating his V.P. George H. W. Bush as the party's presidential candidate, Reagan decided on using the forum to defend
his administration from the onslaught of election-year Democratic criticism. He quoted John Adams' famous line "Facts
are stubborn things." several times to great effect. At least the effect was great the first couple of times he used
it, less so, when out of fatigue or carelessness, he substituted "stupid" for stubborn. The slip undercut what was
turning out to be an extremely effective address and was, of course, eagerly assumed by Democrats to reflect his actual world-view.
- "Old
Hickory", Andrew Jackson's greatest surviving legacy is almost indisputably the quote "One man with courage
makes a majority". (If you don't believe me, ask James Taranto http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120646669169962809-search.html?KEYWORDS=Jackson&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month.)
One small glitch - he never said it. In fact, the quote was generated by James Parton, a 19th Century biographer
as a means to denigrate Jackson's notorious stubborn streak. For a more complete accounting of the error, please refer
to this article by Daniel Feller in the L.A. Times: http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/210485/
- Think that John McCain's age and health issues represent a novelty among presidential candidates? Consider the
case of William H. Crawford, the nominee of a breakaway group of Democratic-Republicans in the contentious race of 1824. In
1823, Crawford suffered a massive paralytic stroke which was to leave him in a weakened condition for years. To the man's
credit, he bounced back enough to place third in the Electoral College during an election that was to be settled in the House
of Representatives (behind Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, but ahead of Henry Clay). His third place finish placed him
among the candidates considered in Congress for the presidency (Adams was selected).
- Let's not give short-shrift
to the historical importance of the all-important third-party candidate. During the presidential campaign of 1928, Oregon
carpenter and presumptive nominee of the Socialist Labor Party (they ran him in 1824) Frank T. Johns was en route to an event
in a nearby park when he spotted a 12 year-old boy drowning in a river. Johns wasted no time in rushing to the boy's aid,
an action so heroic that it would have been sure to give his poll numbers a huge boost had he (and the boy) not died in the
process with a crowd of horrified gaping at the sight.
- During modern elections, the failure to receive less than 50%
of the popular vote is said to reflect a lack of a "mandate" from the American public. This apparently did not seem
to bother John Quincy Adams who, during the afore-mentioned campaign of 1824, ended up winning a whopping 31 percent of the
popular vote (second to Andrew Jackson that year) and only 32 percent of the electoral vote. (Hmmm, the son of a former president
winning an election despite losing the popular vote, where have I heard that one before?) Oh, and it gets more interesting
from there. The election was thrown into the House of Representatives, which blantantly overruled the will of the people and
picked Adams over Jackson, because, well, they liked Adams better. A great piece on this election as well as the whole "mandate"
question is available here: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_135.html, courtesy of Cecil "Straight Dope" Adams. As it turns out, the general population turnout for the 1824 election
was a measly 27%, which means that Adams actually secured 8% of the true "popular vote that year. To translate that fact
for some of our younger readers: You could go on American Idol, defecate on the stage, and then turn around and vomit on your
warm feces and get more than 8% of America to vote for you.
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