The April Fool Archive

Nixon For President    (April Fool's Day - 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 emotionally to the announcement, flooding NPR with calls expressing shock and outrage. Only during the second half of the program did host John Hockenberry reveal that the announcement had been an April Fool's Day joke. Comedian Rich Little had impersonated Nixon's voice.

Nixon For President Haiku (Submitted by Hoax Museum visitors)
Embittered and lost?
Devastated by the vote?
Choose Nixon once more!
(by Paul)
Don't trust the new crooks.
Better the devil you know.
Bring back Tricky Dick!
(by Alex)
April Fool's Day Political Hoaxes April Fool's Day Radio Hoaxes American April Fool's Day Hoaxes April Fool's Day, 1992 NPR's April Fool's Day Hoaxes

More content from the Hoax Museum:

Princess Caraboo, servant girl who became a princess, 1817

Stotham, Massachusetts: the town that didn't exist, 1920

The night Martians invaded New Jersey, 1938

Comments

of course no one noticed that richard m. nixon has been several years dead now
Posted by "gunner"  on  Sun Apr 04, 2004  at  09:39 PM
President Nixon died April 22, 1994 in New York.
Posted by Zack  on  Tue Apr 06, 2004  at  11:05 AM
i stand corrected zack
Posted by "gunner'  on  Tue Apr 06, 2004  at  11:19 AM
Rich Little's impersonations of Tricky Dick were true classics. And that slogan is pure Nixon. In a perverted way, I'm almost surprised he didn't run again.
Posted by Larry Librarian  on  Tue Mar 22, 2005  at  10:29 AM
In fact, it was only at the end of the show that Hockenberry announced that it was an April Fool joke, and he explained later that the only callers they took were those who had no clue, those who swallowed the whole thing. I heard it on the freeway, and I was stunned, until I noticed that my watch said it was April 1.
Posted by Billy Ralph  on  Thu Apr 07, 2005  at  08:20 PM
Does anyone remember the NPR feature on the secession of New Mexico from the US. Burch Bayh was going to be the president. It also aired on April 1.
Posted by laluna  on  Wed Mar 29, 2006  at  08:57 PM
I always had a spot of nostalgia for Tricky Dick. It was a different time back then and Nixon's view of domestic and international policy was both grounded in the past and nuanced through his ability to comprehend global politics. He did kind of get saddled with an unwinnable war and at least listened to some of his critics. Oddly, he was brought down by trying to save his (corrupt) underlings.

Growing up through that war (that he avoided), in an ostensibly more enlightened time, what's George Bush's excuse for being such a stubborn, law-breaking, uninformed failure?
Posted by Jim  on  Thu Apr 06, 2006  at  09:56 AM
He also said "let's take the bull by the tail and face the situation".
Posted by Jeff Stone  on  Sat Mar 31, 2007  at  08:00 AM
Anyone who thinks that Nixon was innocent of anything or was duped into doing what he did is a few french-fries short of a happy meal! Nixon was a crook...plain and simple. Clinton was and still is a liar...plain and simple. He lied about getting his rod polished in the oval office not about committing the act itself. Probably most of the past presidents except Regan and Truman got head while in office and kept us from knowing about it. Nothing new here. Clinton lied and should have been impeached and removed from office. Nixon approved the Watergate scandal and should have been impeached and imprisoned. The reason neither crook was properly punished was due to the inaction of a spinless congress.
Posted by Captain Eddie  on  Mon Apr 02, 2007  at  01:49 PM
Uhuh, but when you think about all the abuses in office, Nixon still couldn't hold a candle to the war criminals in the white house today.
Posted by justice for all  on  Mon Apr 02, 2007  at  04:08 PM
Excuse me, but from what i have seen from american politics (and indeed our own) party policies are only separated by abortion stance, and consequently, all of yyour presidents have been conducting themselves in a dubious manner regardless of political alligencies. And for the record, I am not some Yanke-basher, I have no faith in our puppet government either, or for the spineless politics of my former homeland South Africa.
Despite its obvious merit, and the positively abhorrent alternative, Democracy is a farce, and our economies, based on the premise of infinite growth are bound to encounter collapse someday in the distant future.
Posted by Robert  on  Thu Oct 25, 2007  at  06:09 AM
Nobody noticed that Nixon had already served two terms?
Posted by QoppaKappa  on  Thu Dec 13, 2007  at  07:43 PM
Nixon, Reagan, Bush. I'm convinced that these people are ALL Richard Nixon. Maybe Dick Cheney too.
Posted by Bosco Hurl  on  Sun Jan 20, 2008  at  08:39 PM