Word: humors
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...running for the most powerful job in the world, you must first prove that you can tell a joke? "All candidates look like good guys if they kid around a bit," says Columnist Art Buchwald. Robert Orben, a political gagwriter in Washington, says a sense of humor "is one of the attributes a candidate must have. The good will engendered by humor goes a long way in covering his gaffes." And so Senator John Glenn pokes fun at his lack of pizazz: "Let me say that I am not dull." One, two, three. ''Boring maybe, but not dull...
Determined exploitation of humor by politicians probably started after Adlai Stevenson and then John Kennedy used quips to charm the press and public. "In America," said Stevenson, who lost the presidency twice, "any boy may become President, and I suppose that's just the risk he takes." During the 1960 campaign, Kennedy used a joke to defuse criticism that he was a spoiled rich man's son. His father, Kennedy said, had sent him a telegram: "Don't buy one vote more than necessary. I'll be damned if I'll pay for a landslide...
Television has made campaign humor essential, since snappy one-liners help win precious time on the evening news. "Humor works," says Columnist Mark Shields, who sometimes gives jokes to Democrats. "It says, 'I'm not pompous. I'm not pretentious...
Many politicians are natural performers (Glenn is a notable exception), as hungry for audience approval as any Las Vegas comic. "It's a very heady experience when you get people to laugh," says Buchwald. Reagan, of course, spent most of his life performing. There is a humor specialist among the six White House speechwriters, but Reagan is apt to crack his own jokes spontaneously, as he did with mixed success last week...
...Before an appearance," says Landon Parvin, the President's top jokewriter, "we'll put together three to six pages of one-liners. We rely mostly on self-deprecatory humor." Reagan and his writers rely especially on jokes about his age, a potentially serious liability. Speaking to the Washington Press Club, Reagan mentioned its founding in 1919, and added, "It seems like only yesterday." Last week in a speech in Atlanta, there he went again: "I share with you the honor of this special occasion, the 105th annual meeting of the great American Bar Association." A presidential pause...