Orion Samuelson, he's doing an AMAZING job. Terrific...Terrific..

Ore Ee Un

Dude's gotta be loaded after a century of insider tips on pork bellies, hogs and winter wheat.

Asked to run as a R for Senator against Obama when Ryan got exposed and said no.

Rick: You’ve been rumored to be running for office many times over the years. I know you’ve been active in Republican politics. Has that ship sailed or is there still a chance we could see Orion for Governor signs in our front yards someday?


Orion: No, I’m 76—nobody will vote for someone my age now. But I’ve always been intrigued by politics. When Reagan was elected I was on the list of potential Secretary of Agriculture nominees. I think I would have been a good one, but many people pointed out to me that I could make an even bigger impact on the agricultural community where I was. Once you become the secretary, half the people hate you—the people from the other party.

I did have an interesting five days of almost going into politics when President Obama was running for the Senate. Jack Ryan had won the primary, but had to back out after a scandal emerged.

I got a call from Channel 7 saying that they wanted to interview me about possibly becoming the Republican candidate, because they were hearing rumblings that I was being mentioned as a possible replacement. I told them there was no story there, I hadn’t been contacted. Then Channel 2 called and told me that I was being mentioned downstate in the newspapers there.


The next five days were fascinating. Suddenly I was hearing from people all over the state, offering to hold fundraisers or contribute to my campaign. Denny Hastert’s office called me and set up a meeting at his house. Dennis (photo) was there, along with his campaign treasurer, and the head of the party, and Denny’s wife too—so Gloria had someone to talk to.

Suddenly this was becoming very serious. They asked me about my positions, and I admitted that I had some views that wouldn’t be popular with the base, including my stance on gun control and abortion. I’m all for hunting, but I honestly don’t believe hunters need automatic weapons. Denny admitted that a few would take issue with that stance, but that he could live with it. Then I told him that I really thought a woman should have the right to choose what happens with her own body, but I also said that I have two children, and they’re both adopted, and I wouldn’t have been so blessed if their mothers had chosen abortion. He seemed to think that was a reasonable position to take.

We even talked about what it would take from a financial perspective to run for office. He told me that most candidates need to spend $4 million just to become known, but that I wouldn’t need that because I was already known. He said I’d need about $10 million altogether, and that he could get me the first million. Well, that left $9 million more, which seemed daunting. But he pointed out that I wouldn’t have to run in a primary, and that was another plus.

I left his house thinking I was ready. My wife was ready. Denny Hastert was ready. But since I had a serious health condition (involving my throat), I said that the final decision would have to be made by my doctor. When I got him on the phone, he said: “Samuelson, what the hell are you thinking? Are you crazy?” (laughs). I took that as a no.

That ended my never political career.

Motherfucker got me a "C" in high school speech class.

Elaborate please

Clearly your speech teacher didn't bother to listen to his commodity info. You should've called him out on his poor investment portfolio and walked

I wasn't a good student.

But it was his fault.

Spoken like a millenial

Thanks.

Kids thought I was part of The Greatest Generation when I was in high school.

The ironic part is that my Summers as a kid were my Dad and I picking some sweet corn and then Dr. Ken Senior would prepare some sweet corn and we would sit and listen to the Noon Show.

And, of course, he would "shush" me frequently when they were talking about October beans.

Lacks the raw sexuality of Max Armstrong.

Dan Bernstein towers over Max Armstrong

Yeah, but do I want Dan Bernstein telling me about how I can increase my yield with a more potent seed?