22 Weirdest Campaign Buttons At The Nixon Library Fair

There will be puns. Proudly geeky members of the American Political Items Collectors showed off their stuff at their annual fair in Yorba Linda, Calif. over the weekend.

By
Ariane Lange
by Ariane Lange

BuzzFeed News Reporter

1. Mitt Romney may have lost the campaign for president, but he wins at political buttons.

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ROM-KNEE. Surprising that Romney's crack team of button designers didn't give him more of a leg up.

2. Democratic Deadheads.

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Bet Bill Clinton and Al Gore were grateful for the support.

3. Excellent soap opera reference.

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The Ronald Reagan button pins him for the attempted murder/classic cliffhanger on Dallas.

4. A new spin on "political junkies"

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The 1976 Gerald Ford/Bob Dole republican ticket was a trip.

5. Dorks.

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Presidential candidate Al Gore and his wife Tipper, rocking the awkward-Christmas-card vibe.

6. Decent wordplay + excellent reminder that the Democrats' mascot used to be a rooster.

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Political memorabilia collector Rob Clifford says this is probably an 1896 campaign button for William Jennings Bryan, and it is certainly a rooster holding a broom.

7. Showing some restraint.

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Senator Goldwater's supporters don't get too barried away.

8. Jerry Brown will not be objectified.

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Just because he's pretty doesn't mean he didn't win his 1978 gubernatorial campaign for reelection. Work it, Jer.

9. Wordplaying Nazis.

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Wordplay vs. fascism GUESS WHO PUN THAT WAR?

10. Leave it to the '60s to make hologram buttons.

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For John F. Kennedy, nothing says "the hip and modern 1960 candidate" like a wearable hologram.

11. Ouch.

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President Gerald Ford throws peanuts at Jimmy Carter in 1976.

12. Identity politics.

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Check it out.

13. Burn.

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Wordplay stings like no udder.

14. VRY CLVR

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15. Best outdated photo.

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We all know what Newt Gingrich really looked like in the 2012 race.

16. Buzzkill.

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The Prohibition Party knows how to pick a mascot AND appeals to the youth vote by giving that mascot sunglasses.

17. Best caricature.

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Take that, Lyndon B. Johnson. xoxo cartoonist David Levine.

18. "Malarkey" is always a win.

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Eugene McCarthy almost rhymes this time in his 1968 presidential campaign.

19. Bush flips the bird.

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The George Bush/Dan Quayle 1988 election pin duck-calls out Democrats Michael Dukakis, Lloyd Bentsen, and Jesse Jackson.

20. Sock monkeys are picking sides.

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"Home of the Sock Monkey." 'Nuff said.

21. Hurtful!

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Al Gore and Joe Lieberman feel the cam-pain in 2000.

22. They clearly bug one another.

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Wendell Willkie vs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was running for a third term in 1940.

23. This newsletter is not a button, but it was the most baldfaced political pandering at the fair.

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"Some of my best friends are black!"

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