The joke that altered history.

[hugo]

From Time Magazine

 

 

Clayton Williams was the 1990 Texas GOP gubernatorial candidate. He was leading Democrat Ann Richards in the polls, but then he spoke the words that ultimately cost him the governor's race.

 

Talking to reporters about the weather, he joked that bad weather is like rape: "as long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it." Williams' comments created a major firestorm. Nothing else he said throughout the rest of the campaign mattered.

 

Four years later Ann was defeated by GW Bush. Who used the governorship as a stepping stone to the Presidency.

[fullauto]

interesting footnote to history...

[RoyalOrleans]

[attach=full]827[/attach]

[sixes]

From Time Magazine

 

 

 

 

Four years later Ann was defeated by GW Bush. Who used the governorship as a stepping stone to the Presidency.

 

I think he had more stones than that ,where is that article? brb

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

In truth, the 2004 election was far from an aberration. Nothing has been more normal, over the past two hundred-plus years, than for one side in an American election to push, shove, and strong-arm its way across the finishing line, praising the strength and fairness of the process as it goes, while the other side stares forlornly at the inevitability of defeat and yelps in frustration about the perpetration of an outrageous theft that threatens the very fabric of the nation. This pattern is hardly good for a democracy (though it is certainly better, if transparency and fair play are lacking, to have a tightly fought contest and relatively high turnout than a moribund one and a foregone conclusion). Equally, it should not come as a surprise, given the tempestuous history of elections in this country. John Quincy Adams stole the presidency from under the nose of Andrew Jackson in 1824, and Rutherford B. Hayes stole it again, even more brazenly, from Samuel Tilden in 1876. George W. Bush no more deserved to win Florida in 2000 than John F. Kennedy deserved to win Illinois in 1960. And that's just the presidency, a far more serenely contested office than the often ferocious dogfights at the state or local level.