Hysterical Journey To Historic Places

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EVERY TIME I GO TO TOWN THE BOYS KEEP KICKING MY DOG AROUND







The 1912 Presidential Election was the first one that Arizona voted in as a state, and the first one of the union of 48 states. It turned out to be wildly contentious. The Republican Party was split between the Conservatives and the Progressives. The Conservatives ran the incumbent William Howard Taft, 360 pounds of PURE Republican, and the Progressives ran the Bull Mooser, Teddy Roosevelt. A Socialist candidate also ran, and the Democrats ran an underdog candidate named Woodrow Wilson, he was the former Governor of New Jersey and a virtual unknown in national politics. Wilson got the nomination on the 46th ballot during the Democratic National Convention over the Speaker of the House, Champ Clark, when William Jennings Bryant threw his support behind Wilson. Clark was the rascal backed by Tammany Hall. At the end of the 45th ballot, Wilson was ready to concede. The speech was written and Wilson was looking for guy to deliver it, when Bryant persuaded him to hold off for one more ballot. Champ Clark was a hick from the Ozark Mountains in Missouri, his backers struck up the Hound Dog Song with each new ballot starting with the 11^th. It was ringing loudly through the convention hall when Wilson won the 46th ballot. Wilson took the general election with 43% of the popular vote, but it was an Electoral College landslide. The Wilson Administration took us into WWI, and the wrong-headed peace terms that he insisted upon led us all into WWII. Perhaps WWII had to be fought because in 1912 the Democrats were sick and tired of hearing the Hound Dog Song.







The song was first recorded in 1926 by Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers.

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