Harold Stassen - Cultural References

Cultural References

• In The Simpsons episode, Kill Gil, Volumes I & II, houseguest Gil Gunderson prepares breakfast for Bart and Lisa and asks, "Hey, who wants some eggs a la Harold Stassen? They're always running!"

• In a 1988 essay entitled "Last Train from Camelot" written by Hunter S. Thompson. "Others are not so lucky and are doomed, like Harold Stassen, to wallow for the rest of their lives in the backwaters of local politics, cheap crooks, and relentless humiliating failures."

• In episode 818 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Devil Doll, the Great Vorelli says to his dummy Hugo, "You'll never win. You'll always lose." Crow T. Robot quips, "You're Harold Stassen."

• In a Doonesbury comic strip of March 3, 1971, poker players compare their hands, one says his has the winning power of Richard Nixon, one says he has the challenging strength of Edmund Muskie, the last simply says Harold Stassen.

• In Colonization: Aftershocks by Harry Turtledove, part of an alternate history series, Stassen is successful with his ambitions, first elected Vice President under Earl Warren, then succeeding him as president upon Warren's suicide in 1965. The novel was published only a month before Stassen's death.

• In 1978, incoming U.S. senator from Alabama, Howell Heflin referred to a political rival, James D. Martin, as "the Harold Stassen of Alabama." Martin lost three races for the U.S. Senate and served one term in the U.S. House, before relinquishing his seat to run in 1966 for governor of Alabama.