What's in a name?

I love Eddie Murphy's movies.  Trading Places was the first Eddie Murphy movie I ever saw, and also my first rate R movie, and it left a deep impression on my young consciousness.  I sought out all of his movies after that.  Some were really good, others not so much.

My friends liked his movies too and one of them had Raw on VHS.  We must've watched it a hundred times.  It too left a deep impression.

One of Murphy's not-so-good movies is The Distinguished Gentleman (not to be confused with Perfect Gentleman) in which he plays a con man from Florida named Jeff Johnson who runs for Congress when his representative, also named Jeff Johnson, dies shortly before the election.  Murphy wins solely due to name recognition and he goes on to grift while in office.  Along the way he falls in love with a do-good attorney, and when some bad politicians discover and publicize his criminal past, exposes their corruption.  He then, naturally, decides to run for president.

This seemed ridiculous in 1992 but in 2026 it holds up.  We currently have a convicted felon in the White House and I'm confident that George W. Bush got some votes from people who thought they were voting for Reagan's Vice President.

In Alaska, incumbent Republican senator Dan S. Sullivan faces a primary challenge from Dan J. Sullivan, a former teacher.  The incumbent decries this situation, natch, alleging that his doppelgänger is in cahoots with Democratic nominee Deb Haaland (no relation to Erling, she's running on a platform of "fish, family, and freedom") in an attempt to confuse voters and divert votes to the fugazi Sullivan.  The Alaska Supreme Court said both Sullys can stay on the ballot though, and Alaska has some weird Russian-influenced election process where the top four vote-getters from the primary advance to the general, so it's possible the Dans will face off a second time.  Democracy!

This confirms that we are indeed living in the dumbest possible timeline.  And I'm going to change my name to Dexter St. Jacques in advance of the 2028 presidential election so that I can run against Donald Trump Jr. when he pursues his father's third term.