The Iowa caucus has delivered the first official votes in the 2012 race for President of the United States, and anointed yet another surging challenger to Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination: Rick Santorum, who emerged from the initial tally in a virtual three-way tie with Romney and Ron Paul.

Next comes the New Hampshire primary, where, 16 years ago, President Bill Clinton took first place in his Democratic bid for re-election. In second place that year, with more than 900 votes?

Comedian Pat Paulsen, who ran for President for the first time in 1968, as a cast member of CBS's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and campaigned every four years thereafter until his death in 1997.

Even death didn't stop him. His widow and son, Noma and Monty, kept the campaign alive as recently as 2008, with posthumous campaign slogans that perhaps were the funniest in the history of politics.

One Pat Paulsen for President 2008 campaign slogan was "Dead Man Running."

Even better than that was his brilliantly dark boast from beyond the grave: "Thinking Inside the Box"...

I was reminded of Paulsen's stunningly realized presidential-politics performance art by a recent photo collage by the folks at my old stomping grounds, the New York Daily News, who just ran a photo gallery of 17 Political Clowns, where laughable people, more or less, ran for public office.

They may have forgotten a few -- Will Rogers, Gracie Allen, Howdy Doody -- but it's a very entertaining roster nonetheless.

And Pat Paulsen is right there at #14, where his performance in the 1996 New Hampshire Democratic primary is duly noted. You can peruse the entire Photo Gallery HERE.

Paulsen, as a candidate, was no less quotable when he was alive. During the original, remarkable campaign of 1968, for which his number of write-in votes is estimated somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000, Paulsen had takes on the issues that still sound funny -- and oddly sensible.

Gun control? "Guns are not the real problem. The real problem is bullets."

The war on poverty? At an 89-cents-a-plate celebrity fundraising dinner at a California cafeteria, Paulsen supporter Steve Allen promised, "Pat and I have worked out a plan to shoot about 400 beggars a week."

And so on.

The 1968 campaign was the brainchild of Mason Williams, then head writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. He and Tom Smothers were so determined to skewer politics, and the political process, accurately, they hired an actual political consultant to advise them on how to mount a faux campaign.

The consultant's first piece of advice: first deny you're running, then run. Doubles the length of the news cycle.

A taste of both Paulsen's campaign, and his droll delivery, is evident in this first-act clip from 1968's Pat Paulsen for President CBS special, (and yes, that's Henry Fonda as narrator). The candidate's name is misspelled by this poster on YouTube, but the video itself is pure, perfect Pat Paulsen:

And while we're talking about campaigning, and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, let me do two bits of related campaigning of my own.

Mason Williams, his fans will be happy to know, is available on the web, popping up from time to time to offer his own observations and artistic leanings -- including The Mason Williams Blogging Matter, the 21st-century equivalent to his classic 1960s Mason Williams Reading Matter book.

You can find Mason Williams, and all his related online materials and activities, by going to his website HERE.

And then, last but by no means least, there's Dick Smothers -- who, like Paulsen and Williams in the good old days, is embarking on an ambitious campaign.

But Dick's is personal. He'd like to be a contestant on ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

And we here at TV WORTH WATCHING, especially those of us who wrote a book about the Smothers Brothers, heartily endorse his hopeful return to prime-time broadcast television.

The campaign, at this point, has two pivot points: a "We Want Dick Smothers" Twitter account called @PutDickOnDWTS (which you can access HERE), and a Facebook page called Make Dick Smothers' Dancing Dream Come True.

As I understand it, which is barely, anyone with a Facebook page -- which, at this point in our collective online history, means everyone but me -- can go there, and like it, or share it, or dippety-do it, or something.

Whatever you can do to help spread the word and support the idea, I hereby thank you in advance. I love the idea of Dick going forward, and going solo, at age 73. And if you visit his Facebook page, which you can find HERE, you're bound to enjoy all the supporting evidence:

The Who exploding a drum kit, and perhaps an eardrum, on Comedy Hour.

Dick and Tom Smothers holding signs, literally, in support of Buffalo Springfield's national TV debut of "For What It's Worth."

Tom and Dick performing with John Williams and the Boston Pops.

And another Pat Paulsen campaign appearance from 1968 -- one in which he assesses the then-current field of presidential aspirants, including, believe it or not, George Romney.

That's George Romney, father of Mitt -- who's out trying to get presidential votes for 2012 as you read this.

Dick Smothers needs votes this year, too. Please visit the Make Dick Smothers' Dancing Dream Come True Facebook page, and support the cause. This is no time for good people to sit back and do nothing.

As Pat Paulsen proclaimed, in one of his most inspiring and inspired campaign slogans from 1968:

"We can't stand Pat!"

You gotta love it...

(And though it's not active at the moment, HERE is where to find Pat Paulsen's official web page, with all its historical, hysterical links. Avoiding it, in my opinion, would be a grave error.