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With each new day comes new stories about those that call themselves our presidential candidates. The Republican-side of the race seems to be more like a circus than ever before and that’s saying something. On this Throwback Thursday, let’s reminisce about some of the crazier presidential candidates throughout history. I’d like to say this article is for entertainment purposes, but really, who am I kidding? It’s to make us all feel better about who’s in the race this year. Because if we survived these people running for president, we can survive anyone, right?

Homer Aubrey Tomlinson

Discovery

D’oh! Homer Aubrey Tomlinson put his name in the hat to be a presidential candidate five times in a row, from 1952 to 1968 when he passed away. You have to give the man some credit for trying. Not unlike some modern day presidential candidates, Tomlinson based many of his viewpoints on religion which wasn’t surprising, as he was a preacher in New York City. He created his own political party, aptly called the Theocratic Party. As you might imagine, this party had some pretty radical stances, such as replacing taxes with tithing and creating a new position called the Secretary of Righteousness. After Tomlinson realized he wasn’t destined to sit in the Oval Office, he simply declared himself the King of the World and organized coronation ceremonies in 101 countries, complete with an inflatable globe and a folding chair throne.

Cynthia McKinney

Wikimedia Commons

Cynthia McKinney was a 2008 presidential candidate representing the Green Party. She had some political creds on her resume at least, as she served on Congress until 2006. Unfortunately, her most notable accomplishment while she was a member of Congress was an attempt to pass a bill that would require the government to release secret records regarding Tupac Shakur. McKinney also alleged that the government killed 5,000 men and left them in a swamp in Louisiana. She received this information from a source whose son was hired to clean up the bodies. Who else thinks this source was from McKinney-land?

Earl Browder

Wikimedia Commons

Earl Browder was a presidential candidate representing the Communist Party in 1936 and 1940. An appropriate choice for the party, as he led the Communist Party USA from the 1930s into the 1940s. This isn’t the strange part, however, as many people representing the Communist Party were presidential candidates during the 20^th century. Turns out that Browder was openly working with espionage agencies in Russia. In addition, some of his family members were intelligence operatives for the Soviet Union. None of this information was top-secret, so, if elected, a Russian spy would have called the White House home. 

John Hagelin

Wikimedia Commons

John Hagelin was a Natural Law Party presidential candidate in 1992. The Natural Law Party was actually founded during the same year and Hagelin was the lone presidential candidate ever under the party, as it only lasted for three election cycles. Why having the solution to terrorism didn’t get this guy elected, I don’t know. Oh wait, maybe it was because his “solution” was transcendental meditation. The global terrorism problem could be solved, according to Hagelin, by simply gathering world leaders in a room and having everyone think about the problem. It’s important that everyone thinks about said issue at the exact same time, otherwise the issue at hand won’t be solved. Ah, maybe that’s the tidbit we have been forgetting all these years.

If you had to vote for one of the presidential candidates above, who would you choose and why?

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