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Last Summary Update: 11-24-2008

Election Night
Airdate: Tuesday - November 7, 1961

WOR Show
Original Airing

audio

(NOTE ABOUT TIME REFERENCES: Since there are many different copies of shows out there from different sources, all time references are from the beginning of one single recorded copy, since various copies, depending on when the recordee started recording, had news at the beginning or shortened themes. The times would vary from copy to copy.)

First Spoken Line After Theme Ends

People who have one again defeated the forces of corruption. . .
Opening of show is missing - these are first words of the available recording.

Show Description

[ Courtesy: GROK Summary - - ]   
  This monologue (WOR, November 7, 1961) is a satirical dissection of the unchanging rituals, language, and psychology of American elections, built almost entirely from parodies of the standard speeches and moments that appear every election night.

Victory and concession parodies
Shepherd opens with a generic winning-candidate oration: the forces of corruption have been defeated, the people's will is always correct, the bitterness of the campaign should be forgotten, and everyone must now march forward together. He then switches to a long "sorehead" concession by a candidate trailing by hundreds of thousands of votes (Charles M. Watenabe and various spellings). The loser concedes while insisting the people have made a grave error, that he and his supporters "did not lose" but fought the righteous fight, that millions were spent against him, and that the winner must now clean up his administration. Wife and henchmen trail behind.

Attitude toward defeat
People become excited about their candidate, yet when the loser delivers the concession speech almost everyone feels a little guilty and half-believes the defeated man might have been the better one. At the same time, Americans dislike actual defeated people in real life (a friend loses his job, etc.). Politics is one of the few arenas in which popularity is truly tested; most people avoid putting their own likability to that test.

Election as classical tapestry
The American election is compared to a medieval tapestry - fixed figures, conventions, and backdrop that never really change. Rhetoric, however, has shifted: Lincoln-era candidates used high literary style, abstractions, and biblical quotations; modern candidates pit man against man or against "the bosses" rather than against a moral ideal. The god of the average man is now himself.

Campaign-manager optimism and the emeritus
A campaign manager trailing by more than seven hundred thousand votes with large percentages counted insists it is too early, the returns are coming from the wrong places, they are doing better than expected, and everyone should remember 1948. The "political figure emeritus" appears: the retired office-holder who shows up every election, backs a winner, declares the voters always make the right choice, and vaguely offers his services while noting he has a law practice.

Closing
When it is time to concede, you have to go. Keep your knees loose, do not count on a clear mandate, and keep a sharp eye on your friends.

Overall tone and point: Observational and satirical. Shepherd treats the election-night cycle - victory speech, sorehead concession, manager's denial, romanticization of the loser, emeritus cameo - as a fixed, classical form that reveals more about American attitudes toward popularity, defeat, and self-interest than about any particular candidate or issue. Classic Shepherd digression.      
  