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  • 2004-08-16 (xsd:date)
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  • Walking Eagle (tl)
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  • It was in 2004 that we first encountered Internet versions of a piece about Native Americans tagging a pandering U.S. politician seeking their votes in an upcoming election with the name Walking Eagle (or Running Eagle) because that's the name given to a bird so full of shit it can no longer fly. This item is simply an old bit of humor that is dusted off and trotted out every election cycle, with the name of current politicians substituted for those referenced in previous versions: The first online version of this joke we saw targeted Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who was then (i.e., in 2004) on the campaign trail as the Democratic presidential nominee. By February 2005 we began seeing a version aimed at incumbent president George W. Bush land in our inbox: By the fall of 2006, as interest in potential candidates for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination was growing, a version featuring Senator Hillary Clinton began making the rounds: In the spring of 2008, as Senator Barack Obama was emerging as the leader for Democratic presidential nomination, this piece was updated yet again to take a jab at him: In 2016, this joke was applied yet again to GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump. The meme of cunning Native Americans slipping honest assessments past unsuspecting outsiders is not new to the Running Eagle rumor: it has been used quite effectively in other howlers, such as one we discuss in detail on our Moon Shot page: And in 2018 the same concept was also applied to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, in now-common social media form: An anecdote quite similar to this common political jape was told by Congressman Moris Udall of Arizona back in the 1960s: The Running Eagle jab makes a cynical point about pandering politicians who promise everything to everyone in pursuit of their presidential ambitions. By casting stereotypical sly Native Americans as the truth speakers, the damning evaluation of the candidate's likelihood of delivering on his vows is seen as issuing from wise but wily individuals, making the appraisal appear more valid. (en)
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