Need to Laugh Again

Our politicians have lost their sense of humor.   

As former NBA great Charles Barkley would say; “that’s a ‘tear-ah-bow’ loss.” 

It is “tear-ah-bow” because there is so much rich humor in politics capable of thoroughly entertaining us.  What makes it truly “tear-ah-bow” is that our refusing to laugh at ourselves and our prevailing thinking and institutions diminishes our ability to maintain proper perspective.  

For decades Chief Executive political humor and wit was instrumental in providing a positive world image and comfort in a profession that can be cruel. While entertaining us and providing perspective it also, more importantly, stimulated our thinking.  

Below is just a sampling of what has been tragically lost.  

Abraham Lincoln 

·        "If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?" 

·        "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt” 

Harry Truman 

·        “My choice in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth there’s hardly any difference.”

 

Lyndon Johnson

 

·         "If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: 'President Can't Swim.'"

John F. Kennedy 

·        “I have just received the following telegram from my generous daddy. 

It says, 'Dear Jack: Don't buy a single vote more than necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.'”   

·        “When we got into office, the first thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.”    

·        When asked how he became a war hero:

"It was absolutely involuntary. They sank my boat." 

Press Conference July 17, 1963 

·        Question:  “Mr. President,… [do you have any response to] the Republican National Committee recently adopted…resolution saying you were pretty much a failure.”

·        Kennedy response – “I am sure it passed unanimously.”   

Ronald Reagan 

·        “Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.” 

·        “Thomas Jefferson once said, ‘We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.’ And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.” 

·        “I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.” 

·        “I have learned that one of the most important rules in politics is poise, which means looking like an owl after you have behaved like a jackass.” 

To President Obama’s credit he has attempted to revive this precious art but has mostly withheld his efforts until after almost seven years in office. 

·        “I'm so over-exposed I’m making Paris Hilton look like a recluse.” 

 President Obama  –National Committee Fundraiser – October 31, 2015 

·        “They [Republicans] occupy a different reality it seems.”

“According to them[Republicans] everything was really good in 2008” [Before Obama Took office],  “When we were going through the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes, unemployment and uninsured rates were up, we were hopelessly addicted to foreign oil and [Osama] bin Laden was still on the loose.  This apparently was the golden age that I messed up.” 

William James aptly wrote: “Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds.  A sense of humor is just common-sense dancing” - And it’s time we got back to dancing once again.