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By Bill Altreuter

Reading about Mailer took me to Vidal, which took me to William F. Buckley, who also ran for Mayor of New York. Buckley did it first, in 1965, four years before Mailer and Jimmy Breslin. (For some reason I thought they both ran the same year, which would have been awesome, instead they both ran against-- and in some way contributed to the victory of John V. Lindsay.) (Breslin's wife, Ronnie Eldridge was actually a member of the City Council from 1989 until 2001, which goes to show something.)

When they asked Buckley what he would do if he won he said, "Demand a recount." On the Mailer/Breslin ticket it was Breslin who seemed to have the best lines. For example, when it was over, he said "I am mortified to have taken part in a process that required bars to be closed." He probably took it more seriously than Mailer, though-- in 1969 Mailer was riding high. Having won the Pulitzer for "Armies of the Night", he was the American cultural equivalent of a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade-- he was just about as big as his ego. I love "Armies" but one of the things that makes it so great is Mailer's willingness to be a buffoon in support of an important cause, drunkenly imitating LBJ and all. He must have been hilarious running for office, whereas Buckley, though no doubt amused by it all, was certainly more earnest.

You'd never know it to listen to them, but Mailer and Buckley actually had platforms with a number of things in common. They both proposed a ban on private cars in Manhattan, for example, an idea whose time has come. We would be a better place today if we still had candidates like that I think, candidates who could make jokes about Ezra Pound and know that their audience would get it.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on November 14, 2007 (boomark / email).