A Presidential Candidate

Twain, Mark. "A Presidential Candidate." Tales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches . New York: Penguin Books, 1994. Google Book Search. Google. 31 Mar. 2009 http://books.google.com/ books?id=mUYvvBE95h8C&pg=PA140&lpg=PA140&dq=A+PRESIDENTIAL+CANDIDATE.(essay+by+Ma rk+Twain&source=bl&ots=gMO7kNOPEi&sig=GgrZh8cCfMbMowqHK3kog9L1Lrc&hl=en&ei=g7vSSf GbL6CQmAfGktz3Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA140,M1.

Mark Twain is regarded as one of the best American authors to date. Not only was he a talented writer (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn being his most famous work), but he was very witty and wise to the way of the world, a combination that resulted in incredible satires, which lampoon the war that was going on in the Phillippines and politics. His satirical essay "A Presidential Candidate" has withstood the test of time and is as funny today as it was when he sent it to the New York Evening Post to publish in 1879. His information comes from his obsrvations on politics, specifically that it is considered less bad to be a terrible person than say your not a terrible person. Twain highlights the absurdity of this notion by announcing he is running for President, and then to cover his bases he tells everyone how he shot is grandfather, ran from Gettysburg and hates poor people. Twain is complaining that the voters are too forgiving of their politicians, ready to elect any man who the opponent can not scandalize. He wants voters to pick the official that will do the best for the nation, not the one won the mud slinging war. He hopes to persuade the audience not to get caught up in the spectacle of the race and pick the person that actually deserves to win. The target audience in this case in this case are the educated voters, which would have been white males in 1879. Since there was no television, all the news came from the newspapers, giving them considerable more power. The voters would likely agree that dirty politics is abundant. But if the voters back then are anything like they are now, its doubtful anyone would have listened.