 Meet Mohamed Nasheed, New Look President of the sun-kissed Republic of the Maldives.  He’s the Sarah Palin of the Indian Ocean, getting big play talking about selling his evil bad guy predecessor’s yacht on EBay.
Eventually we learned she hadn’t sold her predecessor’s jet on EBay at all, but for a loss elsewhere. And he’s been elected since October with no action.
Nasheed defeated a not nice person, Maumoon Gayoom, who indeed ran a repressive kleptocracy of which the boat and a presidential island retreat were symbols. But live by the symbol, die by the symbol.
Plain spoken Mr. Nasheed has gotten a lot of mileage as well from refusing the tacky gold-inflicted presidential palace Gayoom built.
 
But Nasheed has instead moved into the former Sultan’s palace, no slum.
If the Maldives ever gets around to selling the boat they may find the economic tide against them. When Iraq finally got title to a Saddam yacht which surfaced in Europe they hauled it back to Basra for lack of a buyer.
Ship of Fools 
A Georgia Democratic Senate candidate says his failed efforts to keep the Presidential Yacht Sequoia safe for Washington cocktail parties are a credential for office. 
Josh Lanier was Executive Trustee of the Presidential Yacht Trust, one of the parade of troubled entities owning the yacht in the years since President Carter sold it. This collection of Washington worthies had visions of putting the ship back on the public tab after gussying it up, but the Sequoia ended up sold to a shipyard.
Since then another owner has gussied it up, rents it for parties, and flirts with selling it back to the feds.
A cry for help.
Thanks to the smarty pants at slacktivist I’ve become aware of a Presidential Yacht reference in the beloved “left Behind” series:
“Carolyn Miller is upset by her husband’s death, but she takes a moment first to remind Buck of when they first met, “on the presidential yacht two summers ago.” Buck had forgotten this, but I suppose all these women from presidential yachts and presidential hotel rooms can start to blur together after a while.”
It just sings, don’t it? I love it when characters take the time to fill each other in on their common past. As the novel teaches us, “when people disappear, some rules go out the window.”
I haven’t read the series, and don’t plan to, but it’s my understanding that it’s set in the near future, or at least a universe not drastically different from our own ‘cept for all the rapturing 
and blood orgies.
In a further rectification of god smacked culture, this Carolyn Miller character morphes from two references in the novel to a screen credited role in one film of the series. 
“Carolyn Miller,” shootist.
Can anyone fill me in on yacht girl’s evolution?
San Francisco Bay area labor union members were crucial to the restoration and preservation of Franklin Roosevelt’s Presidential Yacht, raising funds, working as volunteer labor and mobilizing political clout for government funding.
They may now enjoy watching their salute to “labor’s best friend” used as a platform for nouveau-riche wine cruises.
“Allow yourself to be transported back into an era where taste, elegance, and fabulous meals were a way of life.”
Wine cruise visitors are advised of a jackets “suggested” dress code which appears to have been violated by FDR while on board.
Plain Drinkin
An item for sale on EBay is a presidentish artifact two-fer: the belovedly feisty* Harry Truman and presidential yachts!
For sale is a bottle of beer allegedly brewed for Truman before passing through the hands of a chief steward of the presidential yacht U.S.S. Williamsburg.
Act now, bidding is already north of $100.00!
You can also make a bid on the Williamsburg.
*It’s never too late to deflate! Enjoy this old article on the birth of the Truman legend!
