A perennial candidate & Brazilian music

Harold Edward Stassen wanted to be president of the United States. He kept on trying .... and trying .... and trying .... never to attain his no doubt burning ambition. The photograph on the left shows Stassen around 1950 when he was in his early forties; the second photograph shows him a number of years later. I do not know exactly how many years, but he looks pretty much as he did when I interviewed him. And, yes, that is a wig / a toupee he is wearing. It was not a good one and I thought he looked rather comical with it on .... but, he was his own man and did what wanted to please himself.

 

I ordinarily have a relationship or association of sorts between the words and the illustration and the music. There is none this time .... at least none I can imagine. Victor and Leo are a Brazilian sertanejo duo made up of the brothers Vitor Chaves Zapalá Pimentel and Leonardo Chaves Zapalá Pimentel. The brothers did a tour in the United States in 2009 and another was announced for this year .... but, so far, evidently nothing has been scheduled. I think their music is interesting and pleasing .... how about you?

 

The man who would be president

 

Ever hear of Harold Stassen?

 

Probably not.

 

Unless you are from Minnesota or, maybe, from Pennsylvania or a student of political history.

 

Harold Edward Stassen was famous -- or infamous, as some would say -- in Minnesota as a perennial candidate.

 

Stassen was born in West Saint Paul, graduated from the University of Minnesota and became district attorney for Dakota County (in which I currently am hanging out) and, in 1938 at age thirty-one (31), he was elected governor -- the youngest individual to hold that office in Minnesota.

 

Stassen won re-election in 1940 and 1942, but then resigned to serve in the United States Navy during World War II. He became president of the University of Pennsylvania after the war. In 1948, he sought the Republican presidential nomination and actually had a number of delegates at the convention. Thomas Dewey was the man chosen by the GOP to represent that party against Harry Truman of the Democratic Party. I think we all know who won that presidential race.

 

Stassen went on to unsuccessfully campaign for positions as the governor of both Pennsylvania and Minnesota, for mayor of Philadelphia, and for both representative and senator in Minnesota. He did some of these things multiple times.

 

Was that enough to deter Stassen? Not by a longer than long shot.

 

Stassen continuously ran for the Republican nomination for the presidency: 1964, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 ....

 

For those unaware, candidates for political office have a habit of turning up at newspapers, radio stations and television buildings just as they do on residential doorsteps. The wiser or, perhaps, the craftier ones contact the offices to arrange a time convenient for both parties, but "walk-ins" are very common.

 

I had the opportunity (assignment, actually) to interview Stassen during his final presidential bid when he did an unannounced walk-in at the newspaper where I worked. My thought as the interview began was, "Lucky me, interviewing a man who does not know when the time has arrived for him to fade quietly away."

 

As the interview went on, I began to admire Stassen for his persistence and his unwillingness to let go of what obviously was a lifelong ambition -- to be president of the U.S. -- and to wonder where he found the strength and the will to do it after encountering defeat after defeat.

 

Stassen died at age ninety-three (93) in Bloomington, Minnesota, an unfulfilled man -- at least in a presidential sense. He was a Baptist who said much of his political thought came from his religious beliefs and who gained a reputation as a liberal. In 1963, for instance, he joined Martin Luther King in his march on Washington, D.C.

 

I am not at all sure why the thought of Harold Stassen entered my mind a few days ago. I suppose it is because I sense I am at another turning point in my life -- another crossroad -- and wonder what someone like Stassen would have done: Toss in the towel of surrender and fade away gracefully or persist onward toward whatever ....

 

Silly (as in "idiotic") question .... I know what Stassen did .... he stayed true to himself until death claimed him. Just as I know what I will do .... press ever onward and forward to whatever is there waiting for me ....