Greatest Political Comebacks of All Time
With the media having written off the chances of the Federal Labor Government and the opinion polls looking brutal for the Prime Minister, the time is right to look at the biggest comebacks in history. At those politicians he dragged themselves from the mire of scandal, personal tragedy, or public loathing, and emerged triumphant.
6 – Bill Clinton
Even before the whole Monica Lewinsky saga went down, Clinton’s career was beset by claims of infidelity and draft-dodging. He struggled to overcome these accusations when running for democratic nomination for the Presidency in 1991. At one point he came second to Paul Tsongas in the crucial New Hampshire primary. Things were relooking grim.
Who is Tsongas you ask? Who the fuck knows.
And you don’t know, because slick Willy picked himself off the canvas after that defeat and thrashed the other contenders.
That’s how he got the name the ‘comeback kid’.
Things soured again for Bill, for while he was a good President, presiding over budget surpluses (remember when America had those?) a strong economy, and progressive legislative reform, he was also a very naughty boy.
There was an intern, a stained blue dress, furious denials of sex with ‘that woman’ and disturbing reports of a rather unusual use of a cigar (seriously, why waste a perfectly good cigar?)
Nonetheless Bill Clinton left office the most popular American President with a 68% approval rating – equal with Ronald Reagan as the highest in the modern era. He is the most popular politician in the US today, and was the star attraction of both of Obama’s presidential campaigns.
5 – Abraham Lincoln
Honest Abe Lincoln. Possibly the most successful politician in American history – abolished slavery, united the country after the Civil War to preserve the union, modernised the economy and put America on a path to greatness.
But Lincoln was not always a raging success.
In 1831 at the age of 23, he owned a general store in New Salem, Illinois. The town was booming. However, his choice of business partners wasn’t great, and the business was run into the ground.
Abe then ran for the Illinois General Assembly. He lost.
Lincoln then bought a half a share in another General store. This store also went bust, his business partner died, and Abe – who borrowed money to invest – was broke. He spent several years paying off the debt.
Lincoln ran for US Senate in 1854, but was defeated. In 1858, he ran for the Senate again and won the popular vote. But through a quirk of the electoral process at that time, the Illinois State Legislature chose Lincoln’s rival anyway. This guy could not catch a break.
However, he managed to come back from all this and was elected President in 1860. He is generally considered to be the greatest American president in history. He was perhaps, too good a president. His achievements inspired a wing-nut – who hated Lincoln for abolishing slavery – to shoot him in the back of the head while at the theatre. A tragic for America.
4 – John Howard
He called himself ‘Lazarus with a triple bypass’, his Liberal colleague and former Attorney General George Brandis called him the ‘lying rodent’. Whatever you want to call him, you got to give him this: Howard is a political survivor. He wouldn’t win a political sprint, but you’d put money on him in a marathon.
John Howard spent much of the 80s and 90s in no-holds-barred wrestling match with colleague Andrew Peacock. He lost the leadership ballot to him in 1983, sat on the back bench for two years, then came back and managed to beat Peacock 1985. He lost the Federal election to Bob Hawke in 1987, then the leadership to Peacock again in 1989. He wanted to run again 1990 but didn’t have enough support, so Hewson became leader. He couldn’t beat Hewson for the leadership even after his disastrous loss 1993 (see below), then lost another leaderships tilt to – of all people – Alexander Downer in 1994.
Finally, after the fishnet wearing fiasco of Downer as opposition leader, Howard was the last man standing and was elected to lead the Liberals in 1995.
He went on to become one of Australia’s longest serving Prime Ministers, with 11 years at the helm.
3 – Richard Nixon
Old Tricky Dick. Well, we know the dirty old anti-Semite was the only US president ever to resign from office. He did so to avoid impeachment for the Watergate scandal, which would have seen him removed from office in any case.
But what you may not know are the struggles he had to get the top job in the first place.
While he made it to Vice President in 1952 (to Eisenhower), that was nearly the end of his run. Nixon came under incredible pressure from the media to resign after being accused of corruption and improperly accepting gifts. Nixon’s chances of survival looked slim as President Eisenhower didn’t particularly like his running mate and was considering cutting him loose. Until that is, Nixon made his famous ‘Checkers’ speech. The speech, watched on television by 60 million Americans, (at that time, the largest TV audience ever recorded) included Nixon saying he wouldn’t give one of his gifts back… a puppy his daughter had named ‘Checkers’.
Apparently this rhetorical bullshit was enough for a nation to collectively say “ohhh… a puppy” and let Nixon off the hook. He campaigned again as Vice President in 1956 with Eisenhower and again they won.
After that things went downhill for Nixon. He lost to John F Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election, and in 1962 couldn’t even win when running for Governor of his home State of California. After the Californian race he famously said to the press, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."
Well he was wrong, and big time. Not only did make a comeback, he got the elected to the top job in 1968 and won re-election in 1972 (sure, he was a giant crook and quit a couple of years later, but still – what a comeback).
2 – Paul Keating
He won the unwinnable election for the sweetest victory of all. Paul Keating was a visionary treasurer with a devastating wit, but he was also loathed by a majority of the population. He may have had a better grasp of public policy than his boss, Bob Hawke, but he never had the charisma or the ability to connect with others. Coming into the 1993 election, after giving Hawke the blade two years earlier, things were looking dire for Paul Keating. He was personally unpopular, seen as arrogant and out-of-touch. Labor had been in power for ten years and people were looking for change.
Until, that is, Keating ran the mother of all scare campaigns. The GST proposed by Hewson (and let’s remember it was Keating himself who actually proposed a GST a decade earlier) was toxic to the public and Keating went to town on this great, big, new tax. He was ably helped by Hewson, who often seemed befuddled trying to explain his own policies to the public.
The 1993 election set the template for elections that followed: oppositions now never, ever release major policies or float controversial ideas (the so-called, ‘small target strategy’).
Campaigning on the fear of a ‘great big new tax’ – as Abbott has done with the carbon price – comes straight from the Keating playbook.
As Paul said on that remarkable evening in 1993, “this is for the true believers.”
1 – Gabrielle Giffords
Possibly the most courageous political figure in the world today, who was forced to make a comeback of a very different kind.
Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was meeting with constituents in a small town north of Tucson, Arizona, when a deranged gunman opened fire. The man, Jared Lee Loughner, shot and wounded 19 people, killing six. A nine-year old girl was one of the victims. Giffords was shot through the head – the bullet hit her in the forehead and exited at the back of the skull.
Loughner bought the pistol at a Wal-Mart. He was a paranoid schizophrenic who believed the government was trying to control the population through grammar. He had a history of drug abuse, and was expelled from his college and told he couldn’t return until he could provide them a mental health clearance.
He bought a high-calibre handgun from Wal-Mart. Say what you will of the toxic nature of Australian politics: we at least never try to settle a debating point with a bullet, and we aren’t stupid enough to allow wing-nuts to buy pistols at their local Woolworths.
Giffords was placed in an induced coma. She had sections of her skull removed as they were so badly damaged. She fought hard to make a physical comeback and comeback she did. She spent the next several months learning to walk, to talk, and to write left-handed (as she hasn’t enough control over the right side of her body).
In early 2013 Giffords coupled her physical comeback with a political one as a gun-control advocate. She has been lobbying her former senate colleagues heavily over the past months. If you want to see the sort of work she is doing, have a read of this, for one of the most devastating gun control arguments ever written.
She has not let tragedy and horrific injury stop her from trying to make political change. In the coming months and years, Gabby Giffords may be the difference in getting gun control legislation through the US Senate.
