"It's good to be here, It's good to be here, It's good to be here, Yeah It's good"

Anybody here remember Pat Paulsen?

He was a comedian whose main shtick was actually running for president and using his "campaign appearances" as opportunities to do his dimwitted politician routine. Believe it or not, he actually got quite a few people to write his name in on the ballot in 1968.

He became most famous during the sixties through his appearances on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (for as long as the censors let that show run). When the Smothers Brothers briefly came back to television in the eighties, Pat came along too, and this was my first introduction to him.

My interest in them led me to track down old bits shown occasionally on TV Land. One filmed routine showed him on a series of airport tarmacs, talking to reporters after having just landed. In each one, he expresses how glad he is to be in (fill in the blank of the town he's now in) and how it's good to be with real Americans as opposed to those jokers in (fill in the blank of the town he just left).

This bit came to mind when I found a NYT article containing a series of quotations from Condoleeza Rice (Via BartCop):

"We have no better friend in meeting these challenges than our friends in Greece." 03/24/05

"We have no better friend than Italy and it is a great pleasure, Gianfranco, to have you here." 04/13/05

"The United States has no better friend than Australia..." 05/04/05

"We have no better friend than the United Kingdom, going back in many years." 05/17/05

"We have no better friend than Jordan, a good friend..." 06/19/05

"We have no better friend than Japan." 05/01/06

Damn, we sure are fickle with our best friends. I wonder who it will be next month? I got fifty bucks on Saudi Arabia!


(The post title is in honor of Maki's penchant for obscure song lyrics)