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Which One Is Not Like The Others?

John McCain likes to present himself as a “foot soldier in the Reagan revolution,” but at times it’s more like the Nixon restoration.

Smiles all around, or what passes for them, as John McCain marked his nomination victory in Texas. And who did he choose to spend this special moment with? Freddie “The Jew Counter” Malek!

Malek’s infamous Nixon mission to sniff out the hidden Jews of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a fading memory, disappeared by the straight talkers flocking to the McCain banner.

Pat Answers?

Perhaps America’s only Pat Nixon poem, an excerpt:

“Dropping eggs
Fertilizing
Hearing smelling
Biting and eating life still living as it
Thrashes and squirms in pain as it is
Savored in the mouth of other life . . . ?”

Local Heroes

The case often made for Presidential Libraries is that their localness, their dispersion out of Washington somehow furthers a deeper understanding of those who held the office. David McCullough says keep ’em down on the farm:

“…it is valuable for anyone trying to understand the life of a particular president should come to the place that produced that human being, where his memory is part of the story of that place.”

Or perhaps they just provide local opportunities to further embed ignorance. A recent visitor to the Nixon Library blogged about his experience, and he knows a whole lot of nuthin.

Berlin Wall chunks at Presidential Libraries celebrating administrations further and further from actual events in Germany are an enormous joke, and our lad’s not in on it.

“One of my favorite displays at the library was a section of the Berlin Wall – very fitting since Nixon played a pretty large role in its ultimate demise.”

Not on My Watch

And speaking of tear-downs, the visitor seems to have missed the whole removal/revision of the Watergate exhibit.

The former exhibit space

“There were disappointments at the library, however. Most notably, there wasn’t a section about Watergate at all. As I think back, I wonder if we missed it, but I don’t think we did – we walked through the entire permanent exhibit and I didn’t see anything. Of course, it’s a museum that pays homage to Nixon, so I wasn’t expecting monumental space devoted to the end of his presidency, but to not address it seems very short sighted.”

Theatre of the Stars

Writers never tire of linking politicians to pop culture. It’s favorite lists, free association and bad jokes, with the patina of History.

Peter “Not TV’s Scamp” Bart steps forward in Variety to do the honors this election season. Bart mobilizes material he appears to have been working on before many candidate’s recent demise, so his Romney and Edwards jokes still go forth to educate and amuse.

It’s a classic setup: candidate X wins and the nation needs to know: what movies will they watch?

“With Super Tuesday finally behind us, the presidential candidates hopefully will take a breather, perhaps even catch a movie. After all, the winner will soon have that delicious perk, the White House screening room, at his (or her) disposal.”

Bart moves rapidly from unproven thesis to generalization to factoid, to ignoring what a fairy tale Casablanca was.

“All this is relevant because, in the past, the filmgoing habits of previous presidents have provided a good indicator of their true character. Franklin D. Roosevelt was a sucker for any Disney toon, but took his movies seriously enough to arrange a screening of Casablanca just before leaving for the Casablanca Conference of 1943.”

There’s even a Hollywood Ending:

“For the record, the White House’s biggest movie fan was, of all people, Richard Nixon, who liked “Patton” best of all, screening it three times during the secret bombing of Cambodia. Nixon screened some 500 films during his White House stay…”

…and then he closes with a classic dirty joke involving Pat Nixon.

Martha Joynt Kumar Goes to White House

Martha Joynt Kumar is an actual scholar of White House operations, and she reviewed “All the Presidents’ Movies” when the made for Bravo documentary’s producers claimed it was to be released on DVD.

Kumar’s controversial thesis:

“Presidents spend a fair amount of time watching movies and using them to entertain others“

She does extract some fun facts. This version of White House cinephilia has Jimmy Carter topping Nixon’s supposed 500 films by viewing 579. ” That works out to an average of one every two and a half days.”

National Malaise can only explain so much.

Everything I Know I Learned From Julie Andrews

“…the president sometimes watched movies prior to important meetings. Twice that was the case with The Sound of Music. Reagan watched the movie the night before a 1983 Williamsburg economic summit with governors and prior to a 1986 meeting with Gorbachev in Geneva. “

Julie Andrews’ plucky demeanor may have served Reagan well, but the Geneva Summit happened in 1985.

Reagan may have applied Andrew’s methods in other contexts.

In “My favorite Things” Andrew’s character “simply remembers.”

 

“When I’m feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don’t feel so bad”

The man who confused seeing film of German death camps with being there screened “The Killing Fields” at the White House. He was apparently untroubled, viewing an account of “Democratic Kampuchea” while his administration supported it’s murderous remaints in their war on the Vietnamese installed Hung Sen government. Reagan’s administration [and Carter’s before them] viewed the genocidal Pol Pot as a useful stick against Vietnam.

Camelot Reloaded

GunsAmerica is taking the bold step of evoking That Kennedy Mystique in order to sell guns. For a mere $295,00.00 you may own the gun that lost the West.

“THE M16 THAT STARTED IT ALL
…Without a doubt the most famous and most documented Armalite/Colt M16 in existence, serial no 106 manufactured in 1959 (the 7th production gun) and of course the earliest known gun to exist. Yes, this is the gun that Gen Curtis LeMay shot the coconuts and melons with at the cocktail party and then turned to the Cooper-McDonald rep and said,”I want 10,000 of them and I want them yesterday!”. It is said this gun was also shot by Pres Kennedy (off the Presidential Yacht), Batista, MacNamarra, Diem, and a host of other important people. Traveling to Viet Nam twice, its history is part of America’s History, and I feel there is no other gun in existence as important as this firearm – at least as far as 20th century military firearms are concerned.”

From “It is said” to “I feel” they are giving themselves some wiggle room on the storied history they present. And they need it.

Kennedy is reported to have had two M16s, but Batista fled Havana on New Years Day 1959, and would be unlikely to need an M16 in exile.

Something about Guns ‘N Presidents shoots the facts all to hell. An auctioneer recently sold a pistol supposedly once owned by Richard Nixon, with a myth of origin thats false on it’s face.

From James D. Julia Auctioneers:

“Very rare cased engraved Colt 3rd Model London Dragoon, call 44, SN13 (cylinder replaced), originally belonging at one time to former President Richard Nixon. (Paul Sorrell Collection) Sold for $74,750… Paul had been told when he purchased the gun that it had originally come from a young lawyer by the name of Richard Nixon who later went on to become President of the United States. The details of which Julia discovered just before the sale. Sometime in the 1950’s, a Swedish gunsmith while in New York got a moving traffic violation. He went to the Nixon law firm to handle the matter, and in a later personal conversation with Nixon, Nixon discovered that he was a gun enthusiast; he took him back to his apartment and virtually gave him this rare gun as a gift.”

Except for the fact that in the 50s Nixon was a Senator then Vice President, not living in New York, and not practicing law, it all could be true. Or so I’m told.