Nixon for President in 1992
On April 1, 1992, National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" program reported that former President Richard Nixon had declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. Accompanying the announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech and declaring "I never did anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Harvard professor Laurence Tribe and Newsweek reporter Howard Fineman then came on the air to offer their analysis of Nixon's decision and its possible impact on the 1992 presidential race.
A clip from Torrie Clarke, press secretary of the Bush-Quayle campaign, was also played in which she said, "We are stunned and think it's an obvious attempt by Nixon to upstage our foreign policy announcement today." Listeners reacted very emotionally to the announcement, flooding NPR with calls expressing shock and outrage.
During the second half of the program host John Hockenberry revealed that the announcement had been an April Fool's Day joke and explained that Nixon's voice had been impersonated by comedian Rich Little.
Of course fans of the tv show Futurama will know that Nixon eventually does regain the Presidency, of earth that is. In the episode, "A Head in the Polls", an election for earth's presidency is held. Initially two clones, John Jackson and Jack Johnson, run, representing the "Fingerlican" and "Tastycrat" parties respectively. Other parties mentioned in the episode include the "Rainbow Whigs," "Antisocialists," and the "Voter Apathy Party." Richard Nixon declares his candidacy, or rather his head preserved in a glass jar and mounted on the robot character Bender's previously pawned body. At first, Nixon's mounts a positive campaign, but it soon comes out that Nixon's head is plotting evil schemes, such as planning to "sell children's organs to zoos for meat" and "go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place!" The characters Fry, Leela and Bender record his confession and use it to blackmail him into giving back Bender's body, but Nixon wins by a single vote as the result if voter apathy and a new colossal shiny robot body.
Nixon's head's appears in a number of subsequent episodes, contrary to Nixon's assertion made in 1962 after he lost the race for Governor of California, that "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more."
