In 1984 Gerald Ford chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. I thought it was pretty exciting, the prospect of a woman as VP. My father did not think this was exciting; he also commented that he thought no woman could be elected President.
On my recent visit to see my father he commented on a reader's report to his publishers on his book on Brazil. The report was unfavourable. My father imagined the reader as a dandy with a mustache who taught at a women's college. He apologised for this in an afterthought, remembering that I had gone to Smith. I went to Smith because I thought it would be full of hardcore intellectuals who were not interested in a social life; I dropped out because it wasn't.
My father also went to a single-sex institution, the Naval Academy.
Sperm sperm sperm sperm Sperm sperm sperm sperm SPERM wonderful sperm.
I don't know whether a candidate's ability to be a good president is irredeemably compromised by the means it takes to get into office. JFK overcame the handicap of Catholicity with more than a little help from the less famous Joe. HRC has certainly jettisoned rather a lot of scruples over the years. I have no idea what she would do with power if she had it. I see no reason to think she would have even the longest of shots at power if she had stuck to her scruples. I'd love to think my father is an outlier.
7 comments:
I grew up in Northampton, MA. I congratulate you on dropping out of Smith.
Ferraro was exciting; unfortunately, Mondale was wallpaper paste - who having decided NOT to jettison his scruples told everyone, Look, I'm going to raise your taxes, people.
That's like telling Americans there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny. Or Jesus.
Recently, I commented on TAR's blog that HRC made me want to hit myself in the head with a hammer when she started talking about what she called her prayer warriors. I suppose scrupulosity is the biggest liability in an election year - unless you've been caught hanging out in the men's rooms of Minnesota airports - I just wish the stream of deceptions no longer included this childish nonsense about Jesus. Mitt Romney, whose recent speech on religion in America is being compared, ludicrously, to JFK's speech about not answering to Il Papa, has asserted that the separation between Church and State is not what Americans do or should want. He warned the hushed crowd about the religion of secularism. How has that become a dirty word? I suppose we'll always be one of the most religion-mad countries on the planet.
How does anybody in any other country not wake up with the sweats every night and say to themselves These people have THE BOMB!!
Re sperm, more bad news for HRC. I noticed the other night that the writer's strike has forced the late night talk show hosts to play reruns from a long time ago. So every night many voters are being reminded of the days when WJC was Pollocking the dress of a starry-eyed intern.
(I figured "Pollocking" would make you proud, but perhaps I've gone overboard?)
p&p, I hear it's better now.
mithridates, I missed HRC's prayer warriors. A new low. Too bad about the reruns of talk shows. Pollocking. Hm. I never got the impression our last President was that inventive with his ejaculate.
Yeah, HRC said she had her prayer warriors praying for her when the world found out Bill'd been early-pollocking Monica - early b/c early Pollock was derivative and we don't want to give Bill TOO much credit. Although now it doesn't make much sense b/c this would mean that Bill was making Picasso-like bulls with his ejaculate.
. . . And I'm not even in a silly and immature mood today.
My favorite Smith moment was being home from school, ending up chatting with a Smith student about something random and then having her cut me dead when she asked me what house I lived in and I let her know that I was a townie.
My younger sister took classes there when she was in high school and found her classes and classmates to be insipid.
what the crap???????
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