Let’s see if I can do this thing without betraying my political leanings or casting too many aspersions upon the hygiene, demonic alliances or IQ of any of our current political figures.

Take a deep breath… okay.

This year’s United States elections are more resonant than they’ve ever been. I might not have a clue about the political leaders of most foreign countries, but I can still name the civilian identities of over 50 superheroes. However, the same can’t be said for citizens within the many countries that have their eyes turned upon us. Our elections will determine the way that the whole world shifts, whether we like it or not, so guys - get it right. Please.

Anything so ingrained in world culture, serious or not, will inevitably leech into pop culture, as evidenced by things like infamous Obama Girl music video, or Tina Fey’s Palin impersonation on Saturday Night Live. Eventually, if we’re lucky, these pop culture obsessions leech into action figures. We might not need a little articulated effigy of John McCain, but I’m sure someone will find a use for it, be it to inspire or terrify, and this year, we have absolutely no shortage of action figures of our presidential candidates.

My personal favorite political figure is Jailbreak Toys’ Barack Obama, which is very simple and stylized in execution. Not only is it a fair and neutral representation of Mr. Obama, but Jailbreak Toys announces their own political leanings by donating a portion of each Obama action figure sale to the Obama campaign.

Recently, Jailbreak Toys, in association with Toy Tokyo, extended their support of Barack Obama by holding the Art + Action = Obama 08 show in NYC, in which over 100 different toy artists customized Jailbreak’s figure into different interpretations of Obama, from superhero to martyr to Robin Hood to strange sculptural alien things. Once again, 100% of the proceeds went to Barack Obama.

Of course, Jailbreak didn’t leave out John McCain in action figure form. Every hero needs a nemesis, or vice versa. Their McCain figure is in the same scale, and ready to go toe to toe with Obama. The proceeds from the McCain figure, however, are not passed on to McCain’s campaign.

Ren and Stimpy creator John K. also designed a trio of figures based on Hilary Clinton, McCain and Obama, done is his own signature hyper-caricatured style. This trinity of figures hit only about one month ago because of the long turnaround time usually associated with toy production, so they’re still fairly easy to find - though I suspect that most of these ‘current’ political figures will hot clearance or vanish not long after the election is decided and it’s no longer as fun to conjecture and talk about failed candidates.

And then there’s Herobuilders. Oh, Herobuilders. Every time you see a brief newsbit on TV about how ‘company X created an action figure of flash-in-the-pan personality Y’, it’s probably Herobuilders, who have made a name for themselves by slapping poorly-sculpted, poorly-sized heads onto existing GI Joe-styled 1/6th scale bodies, throwing some cheap, oversized clothes onto them and selling them before the personality’s requisite five minutes of fame expires. They’ve created action figures of various terrorists and social oddities, but the past few years have produced a tiny-headed Obama, and a pretty fair interpretations of Hilary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice, as well as the current President and three variations on a hastily-made Sarah Palin that wouldn’t hope to stand muster among serious collectors.

If you’re more into a recyclable, biodegradable, free Obama figure, try out this free papercraft. Some assembly required.

Of course, nothing can compare to the old tried and true, like Sideshow Toys’ long-sold-out Abraham Lincoln and George Washington figures. If Sarah Vowell has taught me anything, it’s that I’m a little in love with her, and that these older presidents were fascinating and sometimes hilarious men. I’d collect every presidential action figure that Sideshow ever made. Yes, even Franklin Pierce.

Political figures even extend into the strangely apropos bobblehead format, so this definitely isn’t the end of the political action figure collection, which will surely add a few more candidates every year as celebrity, pop culture and politics become increasingly blurred into each other. In my world, you don’t commemorate Election Day with a souvenir pencil or practice ballot sheet. You need an action figure to get the job done right, which is becoming more of a reality than ever before.

In my last blog, I referenced a ‘vintage’ book I found in our home library called “Encyclopedia of Political Buttons United States 1896-1972.” It has numerous pictures of political buttons and gives a little history on the Presidential candidates, winners and losers. The values in this book have most likely changed quite dramatically and we understand there are a lot of reproductions out there.

It is quite a fascinating and a great way to view our country’s history. My last blog ended with FDR being elected in 1944, for a fourth term. While candidate Wendell Willkie did not win in 1940, his buttons were a hoot! I found one with an elephant ‘blowing away” the competition (a Democrat/donkey.) This was rather unique!

Another theme in his buttons was in reference to not being capable of serving a third term. One example is “Confucius say…man who stand up twice, no good third time” and “No Man is Any Good the Third Time.”

I would not have thought any message this ’suggestive’ would have been acceptable way back then. Willkie’s button with a critter in a barrel, denoting poverty under FDR’s administration did not work either.

In 1944 the candidate against FDR was Thomas E. Dewey. FDR beat him by a substantial margin. In February, FDR met with Stalin and Churchill to lay plans for peace. Upon his return, it was evident that he was tired and ill and on April 12, 1945, he died. Harry S. Truman then became President.

Truman was not very popular and had to work very hard. He was determined not to lose the election in 1948 and made numerous campaign trips throughout the country and presented himself as “the plain people’s President against the privileged people’s Congress.” His plan worked and he beat out Thomas E. Dewey.

The 1952 election had Dwight D. Eisenhower vs. Adlai Stevenson. Ike won in ‘52 and then again in ‘56. It sure looks like the pinbacks became more fun – smiling faces , nicknames of Ike and Dick, sounds more warm and fuzzy than Adlai and Estes, don’t you think?

Then came the JFK election, 1960. You cannot help but think that folks wanted to wear his buttons just for the smiling, handsome face on their lapels.

Kennedy won the election (vs. Richard Nixon) but sadly, was assassinated and did not get to finish the term. Lyndon B. Johnson became President. He ran again in 1964 and won, with Hubert Humphrey as Vice President. He ran against Barry Goldwater. Goldwater’s slogan was “In your Heart, you Know He’s Right..” LBJ had another take on this philosophy with “In Your Guts You Know He’s Nuts.” We imagine that this button is a hard one to find!

I am sure you political button collectors are always on the look-out. You will know which ones are real, or ‘fantasy’, or reproductions. It is helpful if you know the early makers of celluloid buttons such as Whitehead & Hoag, American Art Works, Bastian Bros., St. Louis Button Company and Torsh & Franz. Lithographed buttons were heavily produced starting in the 1920’s and the Green Duck Co. of Chicago, Illinois has been the largest manufacturer. I actually got a ‘lot’ of buttons at an auction once and was fooled until I carefully read the side of one. They had been reproduced by Kleenex in the 1970s. As is true with any collectible, do your homework, know the source you are buying from and enjoy!

This country is awash in revered institutions with four-letter abbreviations. NASA. NCAA. AARP. The list goes on.

Here’s a new one for you: APIC.

Never heard of it? It’s short for the American Political Items Collectors—and “new” is perhaps misleading, since the organization has been around since the end of World War II. According to its website, http://apic.us, through the years the APIC has counted among its ranks “educators; students; archivists; historians; elected officials, including members of Congress; political junkies; political animals; campaign staffers; journalists from print, broadcast, and cable; museum curators; and even a couple of past presidents.”

That’s a distinguished crowd.

At present the APIC has several thousand members, and chatting with a sampling of its current-day faithful—a few of whom have themselves been around since the end of World War II—made for an entertaining afternoon at the Chelsea Jewish Community Center in Manhattan on Sunday, February 3^rd.

The occasion was the APIC’s New York City Political Collectors Show, an annual affair where vendors buy, sell, and swap political memorabilia from all eras: from the days of the original George W (the Founding Father, that is) to that of our present-day, unpompadoured George.

Tony Lee, president of the Big Apple chapter of the APIC and the ringleader of the event, said it has been held annually for the last twenty-seven years. He noted that although this NYC gathering is “probably the smallest show of the hobby” in terms of the amount of paraphernalia on display, it’s also one of the most popular, since it’s within striking distance for so many aficionados.

Those who came from near or far found a treasure trove of lovingly preserved political artifacts. A cigar box promoting James G. Blaine, the Republican presidential nominee who lost to Grover Cleveland in 1884, was stickered at $45. A ballot used to elect James Buchanan in 1856, which APIC old-timer Charles McSorley bought for the bargain rate of forty cents two years ago, was now more properly selling for $100. McSorley was also peddling a well-preserved photo of a youthful Abraham Lincoln, his hero, for $750 (“Nobody ever lost money with Lincoln,” he asserted). An autographed copy of Hillary Clinton’s bestseller Living History was going for $129. A pair of license plates, one reading “I’m for Dewey” and its twin proclaiming “I’m for Truman,” were among the higher priced items of the show; the asking price for the two: $2250.

And, last but not least, scattered across tabletops throughout the room was a spectacular assortment of political buttons.

Ah, the buttons. Every year they’re the centerpiece of the show, and rightfully so: the APIC website explains that the campaign button is “the most recognized and widely collected of all campaign objects.” APIC member Mark Evans, whose business card says that he specializes in “The Stuff Your Mother Made You Throw Out,” provided a quickie tutorial on the storied history of the campaign button—which, as it turns out, is as old as the Union itself.

“Washington didn’t have any opposition, so there wasn’t really a race,” Evans explained—Hillary and Barack, eat your hearts out—“but they had commemorative metal buttons that you would sew onto your vest or coat.” In the mid-1800s, Evans said, with the advent of photography, the campaign button of choice was a little metal badge sporting a photo of, say, John Fremont, or Stephen Douglas, or Charlie McSorley’s beloved Lincoln. Then came 1896, the year that blew the roof off the button business: that’s when the celluloid button was invented, using pretty much the same technique that’s used today, and clearing the way for the barrage of buttons touting—or taunting—every candidate worth his or her salt in the century-plus since.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these buttons were on display at Sunday’s event: buttons the size of your hand and buttons the size of your thumb; garish buttons and more tasteful ones; buttons designed to buoy a favorite candidate, knock down a competitor, or merely entertain the politically savvy or the public at large.

Evans’ wares included a caseful of George McGovern buttons—none of which could prevent McGovern from being steamrolled by Nixon in ’72. Others spotted around the room: a Bush button—the future Bush 43, that is—from the 1998 Republican State convention in Forth Worth, Texas; a button reading “The Country Needs Fixin’, Elect Nixon;” another urging you to “Soar to New Heights with Barack Obama” and picturing a buff, cartoonish Obama dressed like the superhero; and an oversized button that gloated, inexplicably, “I Told You So.”

But no discussion of the political-button universe is complete without a mention of the king of the mass-produced political zinger, Mort Berkowitz. With a clipped mustache, an accent that screams New Yorker, and a sense of humor drier than the Sahara Desert, Berkowitz is one character you can’t miss—and wouldn’t want to.

The buttons he and his company, Bold Concepts, have churned out are legion and legendary. Consider that he is the brains behind such classics as “Hillary Rodman Clinton: As Bad As She Wants to Be,” which pictured the then-First Lady with a wildly colorful hairdo akin to that of the Pistons’ former free spirit Dennis Rodman; a button that tweaked Ronald Reagan as “The Flaw in the Theory of Evolution;” a ’70s button celebrating the fact that “Nixon Has a Staff Infection;” and the modern-day classic “Obama, You Barack My World.” Berkowitz claims to have created eighty buttons on the subject of Watergate alone, and to have produced five hundred so far for the current presidential contest.

Which party does he skewer more? Berkowitz calls himself “an equal opportunity offender.” When asked about his own political leanings, he would only say, his expression deadpan except for the twinkle in his eye, “I lean. I lean.” It wasn’t so much deliberate secrecy as the active enjoyment he so obviously derived from not providing a satisfactory answer. He was droll, a charming curmudgeon, a “piece o’ work,” as they say. Another question posed to him was, If there were a button promoting you, what would it say? Alas, he sidestepped the query.

Make sure you take a look at some of the interesting finds at the APIC Convention right here in our community section.

Political collecting can be a strange area. Not just because politicians are strange, but because the details may not transfer with time.

Culture, pop culture especially, is a funny thing that way.

There are specific issues that defined the times, the climates in which men (and a few women) ran for public office. Political slogans & emblems are often mysterious or strange years later because the reasons for the symbol or even the political issue itself is no longer ‘important,’ perhaps it is even no longer remembered.

Looking at them now, you learn a lot about American history. OK, sometimes you laugh too, either at the symbols or the issues, or the freakin’ candidates themselves. But looking at political collectibles is rarely boring.

For example, did you know that the Republicans have used other symbols besides the elephant? Did you know one of them was a dinner pail?!

Starting around 1894, the pail symbolized the party’s commitment to protecting American industry and labor by supporting a tariff on imports & to advocate full employment. It was first used on the all-important political campaign buttons (or pin backs) in the 1900 campaign, with over 15 different versions.

It was so popular with the Republicans that this pail symbol was used until the Depression.

Pins & buttons have always been popular. And confusing. Like those shown above. The chemical symbols for gold &/or water, were displayed on items supporting Barry Goldwater for president in 1964. And the”Willkie Says Spinach is Spinach—It Sure Is, Franklin” is something you’d likely never guess…

This button was derived from a New Yorker cartoon, in which a kid tries some broccoli, then pushes her plate away with the words “I say it’s spinach and to hell with it.” The button’s message is that Willkie would ‘tell it like it is.’

But political campaigns have used more than the traditional buttons to promote candidates & issues. Ceramics, glass, bandannas, canes, hats, jewelry, lampshades & pipes have been used to carry the message, the face & the slogans of candidates & parties. Even cigars have been a powerful political symbol through the years. (Struggling to refrain from any Clinton comments!)
Where-ever there has been a symbol available to rally the public, it has been used as well.

In 1901, the political news was about the organized power of the railroads and how it concerned the finances of the farmer. A popular novel about farmers and the Railroad Trust was titled “The Octopus” inspired this glass flask.

The ‘odd’ orange octopus covering this milk-glass silver-dollar flask is an example of such symbolism, and while it may not be the same message used with today’s symbolism of the octopus, it is still valued by collectors today — In fact this flask, dating to 1901, sold for $1,000 at a Glass Works Auction in East Greenville, Pa.

Like the octopus, many political collectibles are hiding their political connections — and thus their interesting stories. Like this stick pin.

Stamped “Carry A Nation” this hatchet stick pin might be overlooked by the average person at a flea market who didn’t know of it’s importance. “Carry A Nation” was not just a slogan, it’s the name of Carry A. Nation, one of the leaders of the temperance movement. The short version of the fascinating story of Carry is that of a woman called by God to rid her country of the ills of alcohol. She became so frustrated with the lack of enforcement of temperance law that on June 1, 1900, she smashed her first saloon. Thus, the hatchet pins were sold to supporters to raise funds for the cause.

Perhaps the oddest political collectible that I’ve seen yet is this century-old “soap baby.” This baby wears a tag that says “My Papa will vote for McKinley,” but there were those endorsing Bryan as well. (And Bryan ones are much rarer now than ones promoting McKinley.)

The soap baby was used in the election of 1896, aka Republican William McKinley vs. Democrat William Jennings Bryan.

McKinley items are very popular to collectors as this was one of the first ‘modern’ political campaigns — the amount of advertising material put out (by both candidates) was huge.

Even if you are not a person who values the cultural or historical value of political collectibles, or, dare I think it, you lack the ability to value the hysterical in many of these items, keep your eyes out for unusual political pieces — They sell for high prices!

The soap babies, while maybe fetching auction prices of $15 to $30 (for McKinley anyway), are given replacement values of $75 by insurance companies - indicating they will only rise in value. The dinner pail pin above, in nice conditions, sells for well over $100 (and that was in 1997!)

The rare items, older candidates, etc. will fetch the highest prices, but even some more ’modern’ candidates have larger price tags. (Think “Kennedy” — Heck, if it was worn by a Kennedy, or sneezed on by a Kennedy… But ‘that *snot* glamorous‘ is it?) And who knows what the present day campaign bumper stickers, pins, sweatshirts, comics, etc. will fetch at the auctions of decades from now?

So while you search flea markets for the old campaign trail items, pack away a few ‘classics’ from current elections — even local political office campaigns too… You never know where that bum in office will end up!