Rant #1,602: Pat Paulsen For President

Well, Ted Cruz beat out Donald Trump, and I don’t know exactly who won the Democratic caucus in Iowa, but right now, I am ready to vote for …

Pat Paulsen!

Yes, even though he passed away about 20 years ago or so, I think he would make a fine President.

I did way back when in 1968, and I still do now.

Because he made me laugh, and, I guess, think.

If you were around in 1968, we were in one of the most tumultuous periods in our history. There was rioting in the street, rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, assassinations of important figures both happening and soon to come, drugs all around, and we were still fighting in Vietnam.

And it took the power of TV to bring to focus exactly what was happening.

For the first time, the grisliness of war was being brought into our living rooms on a regular basis on the nightly newscasts, and people finally figured out that war was not like it was portrayed in several Abbott and Costello movies.

And what exactly were we fighting for? Few knew, but we were there, and it didn’t appear as if we were doing anything but sacrificing our young men to bloodshed.

TV was still stuck in the Mayberry mold, but then came two brothers from the same mother who helped change what we watched on TV forever.

A few years before “All in the Family” changed the overall mood of network TV, “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” helped open up the door to the new wave of thinking brought on by the youth of this country.

Both Tom and Dick Smothers had been around the block, and they kind of blended into the rest of comedy at that time, pretty much laid back and staid with some biting sarcasm thrown in for good measure.

But once their show took off in its most cutting and biting form, nothing was ever the same again on TV, and I mean nothing.

Just about any political subject was open to scrutiny now, and the Vietnam War was open to be ripped wide open by the Brothers Smothers, their writers and their guests, as well as their troupe of entertainers, including Pat Paulsen.

Paulsen was a veteran satirist who had also been around the block a bit, posting his barbs with his very laid back personality. He always seemed to be half asleep when doing his act, but the best was yet to come from him.

With the Smothers Brothers show in its full flight of ridiculing everything in sight, Paulsen and the show’s writers got the brilliant idea to mock the 1968 presidential race by having him proclaim that he was running for the country’s top office, and do it right on the TV show for the whole country to witness.

And he did just that, and the rest is history.

Each and every week leading up to November, Paulsen would speak from the podium, delivering his views and insights on every topic under the sun, and delivering them in his usual nearly comatose state.

"Picky, picky, picky" was his catchphrase, and he ran it to the hilt during his mock campaign.

“Pat Paulsen For President” buttons started to be printed, he released a best-selling comedy album, and I think a lot of people actually thought he was running for the White House.

In fact, his weekly appearances kind of brought equal time rules into play, because it was believed that he was really running for office, and his five minute spots every week on the show were five minute political ads, and some other candidates wanted equal time … especially since his five minute spots were being seen by millions of people, millions of younger adults who were possibly voting for the first time, each week.

And the “real” candidates wanted to have that type of audience to preach to.

All told, Paulsen did get votes that November, probably totaling in the many thousands, but most people—especially young ones—were well in on the joke.

Paulsen subsequently ran again in 1972, and intermittently thereafter until his death.

And each time he supposedly ran, he got thousands of votes.

But in 1968, people really listened to what he had to say, because in between the comedy, there was a certain sense of sanity, a certain sense of a “real” message being delivered.

The current crop of candidates really do need someone like Paulsen to make them wise up to their own personal deficiencies. And they each have a lot of them, both Democrats and Republicans.

And Paulsen, if he were around today, would have brought each and every one of them out into the open in his own unique way.

And he would do it looking half asleep, of course.

Maybe that is the way to look at the current crop of candidates …

Nearly comatose, or at least with just one eye open.