Hilarious In Hindsight / Politics

• The Official Monster Raving Loony Party had a policy of passports for pets. Guess what was actually introduced in 2001.
• In 1973, Margaret Thatcher said the following:
  I don't think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime.
• Chris Rock starred in a movie called Head of State, in which his character runs for the (2004) Presidency as a long shot and wins. In the next election in 2008, Barack Obama did just that.
• The Gettysburg Address, possibly the most famous speech in U.S. history and the only one that American students are likely to have to learn by heart, includes the line, "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here."
• There was a report in a newspaper from the 1930s in which a spokesman for Nazi Germany accused Britain of oppressing its colonial subjects. Regardless of one's views of Britain, it's safe to say that Nazi Germany soon lost any standing to accuse anyone of being oppresive. Another paper of roughly the same vintage had a report detailing economic deals the Nazis had made with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which were being enthused about by the German economics minister at the time. His name: Dr. Funk.
• There is a history documentary, made during the Cold War, in which a famous historian says "[The Berlin Wall] now separates Germany, a country that will probably never be united again." The documentary was made in 1988, one year before the Soviet Collapse at its finest brought the wall down.
• One of Richard Nixon's first tasks for his men once he got into office? Assembling a work crew to tear out a sophisticated surveillance system his predecessor Lyndon Johnson had installed for keeping an eye on his minions around the White House. Man, the way things don't change!
• In 1974, Gerald Ford seriously considered appointing George H. W. Bush as his vice president. However, Ford passed him up after deciding that Bush's skills were more in foreign policy and that he was unfit to execute Ford's domestically-minded agenda. During his eventual presidency, Bush proved to be very skilled at foreign policy but rather inept at handling domestic issues.
• Anyone remember the much-memed quote from Ted Stevens about the internet being "a series of tubes"? Now take a look at the dozens of "_____Tube" sites online (YouTube, XTube, FilesTube, etc). And people say that Al Gore invented the internet!
• Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has often been quoted as saying, "There were three heroes in Arkansas: Jesus, Elvis, and FDR, not necessarily in that order." In the 2010s, someone by the name of Elvis Presley (and yes, he dresses like an Elvis Impersonator) ran for Governor of Arkansas for the Libertarian Party.
• This interview on the controversial CBC television show This Hour Has Seven Days is particularly hilarious for a number of reasons if you know your Canadian history.^Explanation To explain/ruin the joke for the rest of you: Rene Levesque, the Liberal minister being interviewed, went on to lead the Parti Quebecois (and become premier of Quebec) in the strongest ever movement for peaceful separation of Quebec from Canada, eventually calling for a public referendum on the subject. Pierre Trudeau, the interviewee, would become Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal party, and Levesque's strongest opponent during the referendum.
• Sometime in the 1890s, president Stephen "Grover" Cleveland once met a young toddler. Cleveland said to him "I'm making a strange wish for you, little man; a wish I suppose no one else would make. I wish for you that you may never be President of the United States." The toddler's name? Franklin D. Roosevelt!
  • Something similar occurred in Canada about a decade later, when Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier was touring Western Canada. In one town, he stopped to chat with a little boy, and the kid eventually excused himself because he had to finish his paper route. That little boy was one John George Diefenbaker, who would himself run the country from 1957 to 1963.
• King Ludwig II of Bavaria, ruler of a then-independent Bavaria, was so obsessed with building castles that the kingdom began drowning in debt. His nobility eventually got so fed up that they deposed him before he could bankrupt and Bavaria became part of Imperial Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck after the Franco-Prussian War. Nowadays the castles bring in huge amounts of tourist revenue to the local economy.
• Spanish Communist leader Santiago Carrillo had the nickname of Juan Carlos I of Spain picked out before his reign even began in 1975: "The Brief". In 1982, Carrillo was expelled as leader of the Communist Party in Spain, while Juan Carlos continued as Spain's king until abdicating for his son in 2014; by that time, Carrillo had been dead for a year and a half.
• In 2007, Senator Larry Craig was arrested in a men's room for allegedly engaging in lewd conduct toward another man, who ended up being an undercover cop. Several websites began playing a clip from 1998 during the Lewinsky scandal in which Sen. Craig referred to President Clinton as a "naughty boy."
  • Another Larry Craig example: A December 4, 1993 headline from the Spokesman-Review (covering the Spokane, WA area as well as parts of western Idaho) read "Politically, Craig's Aim is Straight" in relation to his opposition to a gun control bill. Needless to say, an interesting choice of words in the headline in light of the aforementioned lewd conduct arrest.
• In response to his opponent Dwight D. Eisenhower putting out the first political TV ads, Adlai Stevenson stated "presidential campaigns will eventually have professional actors as candidates."
  • Then there's H. L. Mencken's 1920 quote that seems to gain popularity every time a new US presidential election comes near:
    "As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
• In 1979, the famous French comedia Coluche joked about the left-wing party rising to power in 2012. The man died in 1986. Come 2012, France elects socialist President François Hollande after ten years under right-wing governments.^note The 1997-2002 government was socialist, but under the right wing Chirac presidency
  • What makes it even more hilarious is that French Presidents are now elected for a five-year term. In 1980, the presidential term was 7 years. There would not have been a Presidential election in 2012 by 1980 reckoning, had Jacques Chirac not worked to reduce the length of presidential terms in 2000.
  • His phrase could also refer to a potential massive victory of the left-wing in elections of the members of French Parliament, which happened every five years or when the French president dissolves the Parliament. Seen from 1980, there would have been one in 2013.
• Though it's basically a footnote in American history now, there was actually a brief period during the War of 1812 when a radical faction within the United States' Federalist Party seriously advocated New England seceding from the Union and becoming an independent nation. So, yes, "the Yankees" actually tried to secede from the Union about half a century before anyone else did.
• Shortly after narrowly losing his first bid for President to John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon decided to run for Governor of California; commissioning this particular ad that touts, among other things, his integrity (complete with picture of him with evangelist and close friend Billy Graham). When Nixon did become President, many of his actions would largely reveal his corrupt nature topped, of course, by Watergate.
  • Nixon has also become known as one of the most racist Presidents of the 20th century due to various policies, as well as the man who got many racists to join the Republican Party. However, in 1960 Nixon not only ran on a platform of Civil Rights, but his Running Mate, then-UN ambassador Henry Lodge Jr., promised that if elected, Nixon would have at least one African-American on his cabinet. He also passed more legislation to help Native Americans than any President before or since. He was the first to restore sacred lands, and ended the harmful Termination Policy. He is remembered with admiration and respect by Indian people. Many still display a picture of him in their homes.
• During the lead up to the 1993 Australian election, then-Prime Minister Paul Keating declared his opponent, John Hewson, "would make Malcolm Fraser look like a bleeding heart leftie," — Malcolm Fraser being the last conservative Prime Minister at the time. Fast forward a couple of decades, and Fraser's outspoken opposition to his old party on matters such as the war in Iraq, climate change and asylum seekers has gotten him labelled just that. For extra points, Hewson himself has also been opposed to the party on essentially the same issues.
• In his April, 1917 speech to Congress urging them to declare war on Germany, Woodrow Wilson referred to the young Russian Revolution as "wonderful" and "heartening" for democracy.
  ...The great, generous Russian people have been added in all their naive majesty and might to the forces that are fighting for freedom in the world, for justice, and for peace. Here is a fit partner for a league of honour.
  • Wilson also had the Serbian flag raisen over the White House as a show of support to the little country's plea during WW1. Serbia's flag is still the only non-American flag to ever fly over the White House. But 80 years later...
• The 1998 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case MicroStar v. FormGen Inc. involved the question of whether fans could sell player-designed Duke Nukem 3D levels with the game's build editor. One of the reasons the court gave for holding that fans could not sell these levels was so FormGen (the parent company of Duke Nukem developer 3D Realms) wouldn't be impeded in making more Duke Nukem games. The sequel to DN3D, Duke Nukem Forever, took fifteen years to make and was made by another company.
• During a 2008 Democratic Primary debate, then-Senator Barack Obama was asked about using Bill Clinton's former cabinet members as advisers on foreign policy. Then-Senator Hillary Clinton quipped that she wanted to hear the answer. Obama responded, "Well, Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me as well." Guess which former-Clinton adviser became Secretary of State once Obama was elected.
• John McCain, who lost the 2008 Presidential Election, found out several years later on Finding Your Roots that he and George Washington, the first President of the United States, are second cousins seven times removed.
• In the 2007 Australian federal election, a lot of advertising by the Labor Party was based on the idea that John Howard, who had been Prime Minister for eleven years, may leave part way through his term if he won the election, and the highly unpopular Peter Costello would replace him. After Labor won, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd missed out on running for his full term when his party replace him with Julia Gillard. After Labor won the next election, Julia Gillard was herself replaced... by Rudd again. After the Liberal Party won again in 2013, Prime Minister Tony Abbott was himself replaced by Malcolm Turnbull after barely two years. And then after barely winning the 2016 election, Turnball was replaced with Scot Morrison, preventing him from winning a full term.
• This image of then Mayor Boris Johnson getting stuck in a zip line during a promotional stunt for London's Olympic Games in 2012 became a perfect summary of Johnson's situation after Britain voted to leave the European Union in referendum, four years later. Johnson's panicked appearance on TV, not even 24 hours later, all but confirmed that Johnson had campaigned heavily for 'Leave' as a way to distance himself from sitting PM David Cameron (who campaigned for 'Remain') and to postulate himself as his successor at the head of the Conservative party in the future, all while being confident that 'Remain' would win by a short margin and not wishing it to happen in reality himself. Instead, 'Leave' won and Cameron announced his resignation, leaving Johnson no choice, in case he finally succeeded Cameron, to either handle the exit from the EU himself and take the blame for all negative consequences (which Johnson said would be none), or to go back in his stance and cancel the UK's exit from the EU. Either way, Johnson would be exposed as a liar and his political career, compromised. Johnson chose not to run, though he would eventually become PM three years later, following Theresa May's resignation. However, Johnson had to resign three years later following a series of scandals.
• During a 2013 Canadian Parliament debate, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper accidentally referred to then-MP Justin Trudeau as "Minister". In the October 2015 election, Trudeau handily defeated Harper to become PM.
• Around 2013, lots of references were made to a potential Jeb Bush victory in the 2016 US presidential election, such as President Ellis in Iron Man 3 being made to look like him and Glee outright referencing him as the incumbent president in the flash-forward to 2020. Bush was widely considered to be a shoo-in for the 2016 Republican nomination, but ultimately his campaign crashed and burned and he was crushed by the unprecedented political firestorm that was the campaign of Donald Trump. With Jeb's failure, many doubt that a Bush will ever become president again at least for the foreseeable future.
• Donald Trump in politics:
  • When he campaigned for President of the United States in 2000, he went under the Reform Party platform. He said that he found it disturbing that the people that were running alongside him in the Reform Party included a Klansman (referring to David Duke) and a Communist (referring to Lenora Fulani). 16 years later, Trump's Presidential campaign (as a Republican) found endorsements from both the Ku Klux Klan (including David Duke, the Klansman Trump was referring to) and North Korea.
    • Both during his brief campaign and in his book The America We Deserve, Trump insulted Reagan communication director and twice Republican Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan as "disgusting." (Trump even referred to Buchanan as a "neo-Nazi" in the same "a Klansman and a Communist" comment mentioned above.) Buchanan has since become seen as the forefather to Trump's "America First" ideology, with Buchanan himself even naming a column of his "Before Trump, There Was Buchanan."
  • God only knows how many people joked about how he would never be President, including Barack Obama and John Oliver. The anti-Trump Seth Meyers joked after the election that, given how inaccurate his predictions regarding Trump's campaign were, he was probably going to be a great president.
  • In 2012, he tweeted "The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy." In the 2016 election, he lost the popular vote, but won the electoral college and the presidency — retweets for that tweet surged following the announcement.
  • In 2012, he tweeted that "Robert Pattinson should not take back Kristen Stewart". The most popular response tweet was "YOU SHOULD BE PRESIDENT FOR SAYING THAT". Four years later...
  • In 2010, then-State Department spokesman Phillip J. Crowley warned against visiting North Korea, saying, "We only have a handful of former presidents." In 2017, in part thanks to the Trump Administration, North Korea released three Americans.
• The Leader of the Nazi Ahnenerbe Organization, Herman Wirth, was fired by Heinrich Himmler (among other reasons) for stating the idea that in the future, Germany will be ruled by a woman who would be called the "great mother". Angela Merkel, who became the German Chancellor in 2005, got the nickname "Mommy" or "Mother". Thus, in a certain way, Wirth's prediction turned true. Wirth also later became a feminist, making him literally the first literal Femnazi.
• In 2009, Senator Jim Bunning told his audience at a speech during the Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner that he would vote for a conservative Supreme Court Judge, one who would "be in place very shortly because (the liberal) Ruth Bader Ginsburg... has cancer." and predicted that she would be dead in nine months. 10 years later, Ginsburg recalled the story in an interview with NPR, where she noted, "That senator... is now himself dead, and I am very much alive."
• A book on Italian politics written shortly after the election of Berlusconi referred to him as "a breath of fresh air after so many years of sleaze and corruption". It's true that Italy doesn't have the most admirable past, but that description of Silvio is definitely hilarious now he's on trial for both sleaze AND corruption.
• Bill Clinton was commonly joked to be "the First Black President". And then came the first real Black President.
  • Either Hilarious or Horrible depending on how you look at it, since the end of Clinton's administration many liberal commentators have said that he helped power institutional racism through his tough on crime policies. Really makes that old nickname seem kind of odd.
• One of Clinton's campaign slogans in 1992 was "The Man from Hope," as in Hope, Arkansas. (He also gave a speech about still believing in a place called Hope at the Democratic Convention that year). Obama would also use "Hope" as one of his slogans, spawning a memetic poster.

---