
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 14, 1990                   TAG: 9006140471
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-15   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THEO LIPPMAN JR. THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WINNING LINES FROM LOSING POLITICIANS

I HAVE long marveled at the ability of many politicians to come up with a wise or witty remark following a defeat.

The most enduring was Abe Lincoln's after he lost an 1858 Senate race. He joked that he felt like the little boy who stubbed his toe: "It hurt too bad to laugh, and he was too big to cry." Adlai Stevenson borrowed the line when he lost the presidency in 1952. I am sure others have knowingly or unknowingly quoted Lincoln.

That is still my favorite concession statement. Last week, I heard one that rates right behind it. It is perfect for its time and place. It's my new second favorite.

My old second favorite was an Alf Landon comment made a few weeks after he lost the 1936 presidential election to FDR in the biggest landslide ever. It reminded him, he said, of a fellow Kansan whose farmhouse, barn and outbuildings were all blown away by a tornado. He began to laugh. His wife asked him, "What are you laughing at, you darned old fool?" The husband replied, "The completeness of it."

My previous third favorite was what a Democrat named Richard Tuck said once in conceding loss in a California legislative race: "The people have spoken. The bastards."

My new entry is from California Attorney General John Van de Kamp. He lost the Democratic nomination for governor to Dianne Feinstein, former San Francisco mayor.

She ran a brilliant campaign and beat him badly. Not long after the polls closed, Van de Kamp said, "I feel a little tonight like the auto mechanic who was run over by a Corvette. `I think my leg is broken - but did you see that car!' "

Lincoln also said this to hostile newspaper reporters after his 1858 loss: "Just think how much you're going to be missing, you won't have Lincoln to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."

No, wait a minute. I mean, he said, "I now sink out of view and shall be forgotten." It was Richard Nixon who said that about "my last press conference," after losing the 1962 California governor's race.

All losers can take note and take heart: Both Honest Abe and Tricky Dick came back from the agony of defeat to savor the thrill of victory at the highest level, the presidency. In Nixon's case he came back after two losses - for the presidency in 1960, then the governorship in '62.

Taking note of that double whammy the day after the 1962 loss, Nixon also contributed this gem: "Losing California after losing the presidency; well, it's like being bitten by a mosquito after being bitten by a rattlesnake." Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service

by CNB