Reelection Quotes
Attributed. The earliest close match located by QI appeared in a column by Dick Nolan in “The San Francisco Examiner” of California in 1966. The comedian Robin Williams, 1951-2014, was also very successful with this line a century later.
Mexicans were very sensitive to the problem of a leader being elected and then controlling the police, media and election system, keep getting elected. Diaz ran on a slogan of a term limit of a single term. He was elected on that basis and served one term and stepped down. Then, breaking his campaign pledge, he ran again and served term after term for 30 years. The Mexican Revolution resulted. The Mexican Constitution was then written to have a term limit of one 6 year term.
Hope cracked this joke after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected for an unprecedented fourth term as president:
The members of the Irish Parliament at that time were an almost permanent group. Their constituents, were uneducated, ignorant, and often dependent on the member and in fear of retribution if he were not elected. Like any legislative body of members or almost certain reelection, many of the members were corrupt and unaccountable.
Roosevelt, after refusing to run for a third term in 1908, decided to run in 1912:
General Sherman’s capture of Atlanta was just the change that Lincoln needed. It turned the tide of Northern public opinion.
LBJ was depressed and thinking of not running for re-election.
Barstow the Democratic Governor who had no serious opposition in 1853 found himself challenged for reelection by Coles Bashford of the new Republican Party. The Board of Canvassers reported that Governor Barstow had won reelection but by less than 200 votes in the whole state. The Republicans charged that there had been fraud in some of the rural districts and petitioned the Wisconsin Supreme Court which ruled that nonexistent precincts had indeed voted for the Governor. The Barstow however refused to recognize the decisions of the court claiming that the court had no jurisdiction over the Board of Canvassers who were part of the executive branch. The Republicans held their own inauguration and two men claimed to be Governor. But the Governor claimed that the state constitution did not give the court any authority to deal with the crisis, He even called out the State Militia to maintain his office and intimidate the Supreme Court and keep the “other governor” from the state house. Nonetheless the court ruled that even the Governor had to obey the law and the Supreme Court would determine what the law was. Barstow finally “resigned.” See {587917} & {587914}.
