This poor man, quite upstaged, offered to put normal politics on hold, but was spurned.
So far this has produced a low-key campaign which, by its very dullness, conveys that normal politics are taking root.
Despite his scrapes, Mr Johnson, a friend of fellow Old Etonian Tory leader David Cameron, is highly intelligent and has a following which extends beyond normal politics.
It would be wise to note how much has not yet happened, and why Ulster's halting progress towards peace and normal politics has much further still to go.
The wooing of newspaper proprietors, however vile, is normal politics.
Though the Democrats are few in parliament and the Socialists enjoy a commanding majority even without their coalition partners, the boycott has held up the drafting of a new constitution and prevented normal politics.
The young NRC changed dramatically in response to the Three Mile Island incident and the need to make the NRC above the normal politics of the day as the long-term safety of the environment transcends the four-year political cycle.
In November 2011 a technocrat, the economics professor and former European Commissioner Mario Monti, was brought in to stabilize the country's finances, make reforms and give the country a "reset" before normal politics commence again after the upcoming elections.
In the interim, governments led by so-called technocrats (a professor, a governor of the Bank of Italy, an ex-diplomat) were brought in to make reforms and give the country a much needed "reset" before normal politics would be resumed.
Yes, I know, by the normal speed of politics let alone constitutional politics that is a racing Ferrari type speed at which to be doing things.
So far, this is all within the normal range of democratic politics and policy discussions.
It is a sign of how things have changed that some Republicans, too, think politics is back to normal.
There is a recognition that, with more than 100 days to absorb the shock of the SNP majority, the re-start of politics-as-normal post-summer requires a clearer strategy.
Normal people do not think about politics most of the time, he adds, but show a healthy scepticism about party manifestos, knowing that they cannot set out how a party will react to unforeseen events.
If politics are to return to normal by year's end, the outcome will be a happy one only if Thailand sees the emergence of good, liberal ideas in the process.
But a year in politics is equal to a century in normal life.
African politics can be a bit of rough and tumble, this is normal.
"I'd say they're more white-collar than blue-collar - anything from hippies to pretty normal looking people, but generally they're educated - either very concerned about politics or the environment, or both, " she says.
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