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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Tuck

You're telling me there was a political prankster named Dick Tuck? Really??

DICK TUCK?!?? 😂😂

#dick tuck #everybody finds “Tricky Dick” funny but “Dick Tuck” is diabolically hilarious #wikipedia

The banality of concession speeches.

Belated comments on election night coverage.

Concession speeches and statements are far more theater than substance. If you lose, you lose; it makes little difference whether you make a public declaration to state the obvious. The winner still wins no matter what (or even if) the loser says anything. If, on election night, it appears that you've lost and you concede but you then pull ahead a few days later when absentee ballots are counted, you still win. Your concession does not negate the results. So in practical terms, concession speeches are a waste of time. They seldom deserve the live coverage they get on broadcast media.

I don't know whether concession speeches on election night were widespread in the years before TV coverage of election results became standard. But they have become a fixture. They do have the ability to kill time and occasionally produce minor drama, so it's clear why TV news would devote so much airtime to them. A commercial or two can easily be inserted after such speeches, so there could be a minor financial motivation for airing them.

A typical concession speech features the losing candidate saying that he/she has just called the winner to offer congratulations. The candidate then thanks supporters while sad and weeping relatives and campaign staff mill about in the background. The candidate concludes by pledging to fight on in some capacity in the future. Few things are as predictable and boring as a concession speech.

One of the very few interesting concession speeches was given by the late Richard Gregory "Dick" Tuck. Tuck was a political operative and prankster who was a self-proclaimed "nemesis" to Richard Nixon. In 1966 Tuck himself ran for the Democratic nomination for California State Senate from the then 27th district. When it became apparent that he'd end up in third place with around 10% of the votes, Tuck declared: "The people have spoken . . . the bastards."

If concession speeches were more like Dick Tuck's or like Richard Nixon's infamous 1962 post-election press conference then they might be worth listening to. But 99.9% of them are best used for bathroom breaks or occasions for putting the garbage out for collection.

#election 2018 #midterm elections #rant #concession speeches #dick tuck #richard nixon #election night