Presidential Parody ‘08
Here is my first post on TechPresident.com:
I did a quick search on Google for "President 2008" hoping to find a collection of links to the major candidates. After all, some people think the campaign has already started. But instead of finding Hillary, Rudy, Barack, John, and the gang at the top of the free links, I found MyDD, the Polling Report, Walken 2008, and Draft Hillary atop that list, while John, Mitt, and Bill (Richardson) showed up in the sponsored links (Hillary did, too, but not her official site).
Now, while some of you may ask why the official candidate websites don’t rank higher, I am stunned that Walken 2008 ranks third on this list.
Walken.
That’s Christopher Walken.
You might remember him from his 2004 campaign. He didn’t win.
But this is 2008. Move aside Fred Thompson.
It is soooo early in this race that I really think we have to step back, relax, and breathe to stay sane for the long haul. So to help you regain that lost sense of balance, I wanted to take a look at the role of parody in presidential campaigns, especially online.
This story must start at a great moment in digital politics. In 1996 comedian Pat Paulson became the first presidential candidate to launch a campaign website. Paulson first ran for president in 1968. He didn’t win. But I remember voting for him in my second grade’s straw poll.
No one else in my class knew who he was, because this was before the internet and second graders knew very little of the world then.
But in 1996, Pat broke new ground.
When I saw his website, I had been teaching the Politics of Cyberspace for a year and was, of course, ecstatic. I immediately whipped off an email to Pat, telling him I was a fan and a scholar of digital politics. He replied personally, inviting me to call for an interview. Sadly, I procrastinated until long after the elections and Pat passed away before we could talk. He was 69 years old.
But he had launched a new era of presidential parody. In his wake followed a fake Bob Dole site that explained how the senior Senator from Kansas had no relations to Dole fruit company, but did like his bananas slightly over-ripe, "but not so ripe as to be mushy."
Parody is a delightful part of presidential elections. It helps us remember that those running are just people… people who want to be the leader of the FREE WORLD. "But even the president of the United States must stand naked" (look for my future post on the president and Rock’n'Roll).
So, I applaude Mr. Walken for again gracing us with his presence in the presidential race. And as we all get sucked deeper into this earliest campaign ever, I hope we can stop along the way and appreciate the humor that accompanies such a serious and momentous moment as a presidential campaign. May this moment last for another twenty-plus months.
April 8th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I too remember the Pat Paulson campaigns of the 60’s and 70’s. Although not a major celebrity, Paulson garnered a surprising number of votes by people who either were voicing a protest vote to the staid political choices who didn’t speak to them personally (many young voters, against the war in Vietnam and later the corruption of the Nixon administration), or perhaps just more enamored with the idea of a celebrity/non-politician spicing up the political mix.
Paulson may be the first non-politician celebrity to jump in the ring, but many have followed since, and with surprising results.
Paulson’s campaigns may have been laughed off by many as simply a PR scheme, but he also showed that celebrity sells, even in politics. This reality has caused many celebrities to follow Paulson’s lead, for a number of different reasons. It has also shaped some professional politician’s campaign strategies (Bill Clinton’s being probably the most recognized).
Many non-political celebrities have followed Paulson’s lead and entered a political race, some to give voice to a particular political issue, some to challenge the lack of connection many voters feel with professional politicians, and some simply just to get some press for their entertainment careers.
What celebrities have run and for what reasons? Celebrity candidates seem to come from an equal balance of acting, singing, comedy, and athletic careers. They have run for a wide range of high profile positions such as mayor, governor, senator, or president. Successful celebrity candidates include Sonny Bono, Clint Eastwood, Jesse Ventura, and of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
One could also argue that cultural icons like John Glenn , business tycoons like Ross Perot and the many former military heroes of our nation were celebrities first and came into politics after making a name for themselves in other fields, but here I will limit my definition to entertainment celebrities. And the reason for doing so is that these people already have a direct line to the average American that most professional politicians don’t; they have already mad a name for themselves in the media; T.V., radio, the internet, movies and c.d.s This is where names are made in this country, and the biggest challenge for professional politicians is to win Americans through the media. By having a recognized name and usually standing outside of entrenched party politics (on either side) celebrities can quickly develop a wide support base. But how far they go really depends on what they have to say after they get the nation’s attention.
I will let Dr. Dipol extrapolate on this topic. But I think it will be interesting to look at both how professional politicians try to win the media in the 2008 presedential campaign and how celebrity candidates like Al Franken (running for a senatorial seat in Minnesota) will fare. America will be tuned in for what will certainly be a campaign not too different from how America chooses it’s next idol.
-Gregg from Atlanta