The night after the voting I went to a win-or-lose party thrown by a candidate for office in Queen Anne’s County. As it turned out, he lost. He was smiling as were his guests. The food was terrific, wine was consumed, and everybody seemed to have a good enough time.
Still, I couldn’t help thinking how hard it must have been for everybody who hadn’t won, and what a struggle it must be to be gracious in defeat. And, of course, in such circumstances, what I myself would say.
Then I remembered the concession speech of Morris K. Udall of Arizona after he dropped out of the 1976 presidential campaign. I was a reporter who covered Udall’s bid, and as I recall it now, he somehow managed to place second in every primary he entered. He gathered more votes, adding up all the primaries, than any other candidate including the eventual winner, Jimmy Carter. But, as he came to realize, if he couldn’t be the favorite in any state, he wasn’t going to become the national favorite. So he dropped out. His final words on it are legend now, though they weren’t seriously reported at the time. They were treated, as he intended, as a joke and as a punchline on himself:
“The people have spoken, — damn them.”
The sentiment has to be as old as democracy. So I Googled around and found a similar concession from the decade before, from somebody else I palled with at one point, Dick Tuck. He was the political prankster who inspired the dirty tricks of Richard Nixon’s 1972, the great difference being that Tuck managed to be funny and his imitators just plain mean.
Anyway, in the early Sixties Dick ran for the California state senate. He opened his campaign in Forest Lawn Cemetery, claiming that just because people died didn’t mean that they didn’t keep their voting rights. He correctly cited a long tradition in American elections of dead people voting. Alas, Tuck didn’t do so well with the living. On election night, returns showed him placing third with just 10 percent of the vote. Tuck kept his supporters and the reporters at the bar until well past midnight, maintaining they had to wait until the dead vote came in.
Too bad for Tuck it wasn’t Chicago or Baltimore where the dead block had long been active. At last he had to concede: “The people have spoken, the bastards.”
So I wasn’t surprised to discover the very same words were said by a losing public figure 3,000 years ago. I don’t have all the correct letters on my keyboard, but it reads approximately like this: oi dv8pwttoi eXouv hi^noei, ta ka8apuata.”
That was Socrates, I think.
Gren Whitman says
One local candidate missed his big chance to join the Concession Speech Hall of Fame, to wit:
“Life’s too short to take a short view.
I came up short, so I’ll keep my speech short and sweet.
Thank you, one and all.
That’s the long and short of it.
So long!”
Joel Brandes says
My sympathies go to those who have won rlection. It is likely that they have reached the zenith of their popularity. I would bet they ran for office believing they would accomplish great things for the citizens of the area. They will now discover the many critics that will scrutinize their every move, looking for flaws. Even should flaws not exist, someone will claim they do.
Some people will tell you, how handsome and intelligent you are, while seeking a favor. Should you be unwilling or unable to deliver that favor, add an enemy to an ever growing list. Some will claim you spend too much, others too little. Your best bet for re-election, is to do nothing, say nothing and simply blend into the woodwork.
Ponder the 44 Presidents of the United States. People debate who was the best or the worst, but the majority are not remembered at all. Maybe, those who lost have been blessed to slip into obscurity.
Marty Stetson says
I have won elections and lost elections. It is more fun to win.