Campaign Relief

By: John Hanchette Campaign humor, however corny or politically incorrect, has long been a staple of sidebar news coverage during the months running up to presidential elections. Every so often, it vaults into the lead, usually to the detriment of a particular candidate. Long before I covered these campaigns myself, one of the first jokes I ever heard as a young child in the early 1950s involved President Truman and a speech he allegedly made at an unnamed Indian reservation during the 1948 campaign against Thomas Dewey. I barely understood it or why the adults were chuckling, but in this knee-slapper, Truman gains increasing confidence in his address because each sentence is greeted with the tribal shout "Woompah! Woompah!"

As Truman departs the speaking platform and passes a nearby unraked horse corral, an aide ? pointing to the ground ? cautions "Watch out, Mr. President, don't step in the 'woompah' there."

Every four years, without success, I try to confirm this surely apocryphal tale. The thing is, as I grew older, I heard it told about Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. (The joke must have run out of steam after the Watergate years.)

This year's run for the White House ?with Iraq, the shaky economy, and other national uncertainties ? has brought many readers to tears, but few from laughter. Many print journalists have done as I just did: resorted to history for attempted grins.

Walter Shapiro in USA Today recently transported readers back to 1968 when the sometimes dim George Romney, the Michigan governor, a favorite for the Republican nod, dropped out after being ridiculed for saying he'd been "brainwashed" on a fact-finding trip to Vietnam. The famously wry Democrat, Sen. Eugene McCarthy, observed that "a light rinse" would have sufficed.

As the 2004 campaign heats up, some reporters and columnists have become more pointed with their gibes. Texas columnist Molly Ivins ? excoriating President Bush for cheesing off Canada over the occupation of Iraq ? wrote that "alienating the best neighbor any country ever had ranks fairly high on the All-Time Stupid List." After all, for the Canadians, "it's like having the Simpsons for next-door neighbors."

Another noted user of the stiletto, Christopher Hitchens reviewed in mid-August three recent books on John F. Kerry, one by the candidate himself. Writing in The New York Times Book Review, Hitchens resorted to song lyrics to grease the blade and draw attention to criticism of the Democratic nominee for flip-flopping on issues. Hitchens held that Kerry, instead of choosing "A Call to Service," should have used a Joni Mitchell tune for the title of his campaign autobiography ? "Both Sides Now."

After covering six presidential election campaigns, I've come to the conclusion that the funniest material comes from the daily painful efforts of the candidates themselves ? either on the trail, or for the incumbent, in the White House.

Knowing the damaging pictorial embarrassment that has befallen numerous predecessors, why would Kerry allow himself to be photographed crawling from a space shuttle attired in a hooded white anti-contamination suit and sporting a dopey grin? Kerry, opined the New York Post, looked like nothing so much as Woody Allen's ludicrous giant sperm in the movie "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask."

President Bush has his unintentionally amusing moments, too, frequently speaking like he's intent on conducting a perpetual linguistic tribute to Yogi Berra. At an August signing ceremony, the president tried to emphasize how his national security folks are ever-vigilant in guarding against terrorism. Instead, referring to our enemies, he babbled, "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Newspapers of every political stripe ate that up. Arizona Republic cartoonist Steve Benson portrayed himself leaving his drawing board in resignation after hearing the quote on TV, flipping his ink pen away, hanging a "Cartoon Shop Closed" sign on the office door, and saying, "Ain't no way to top that."

Mike Arrieta-Walden, public editor of The Oregonian, nicely placed campaign humor in perspective earlier this year in a cogent column. With the electronic tsunami of 24-7 sound-bite coverage following the "horserace" template of election reporting, he wrote, "newspapers and other print media [are] even more crucial in helping to separate substance from rhetoric."

But, he continued, "Readers recognize that political junkies are hungry for the humor in campaigns. They also are aware that many people? need a way to be drawn to the coverage." Humor, he concluded, "can help perk interest." Amen.