Here is a dismaying article accompanied by a shocking picture. Julie Nixon Eisenhower has, apparently, maxed out on campaign giving to: Obama. Why? The Times does not say. The action does speak for itself.
Back when the Nixons left the White House in disgrace all those decades ago, it was said, (by the Times, naturally) that Julie (the intense, dark-haired, ”smart one”) was the heir apparent — and that she would be back — perhaps as the “first female president,” if only to avenge her father’s reputation. Perhaps life and Mrs. Eisenhower are more complicated — or just more sensible — than that. Perhaps we humans are psychologically limited in our options, to following in the footsteps of, or rejecting and rebelling against our various patrimonies. Or, given the linked picture, perhaps the fact that she looks like a carbon copy of her mother — a bit mad, but with a little more iron about the jaw — suggests that she is not her father’s daughter after all. The picture is more shocking than the deed. Trisha Nixon Cox, (the blond, putatively less ambitious, “pretty one”) still looks like the girl America knew, and, recognizably, has given her campaign donations to John McCain. Her husband, who has worked endlessly to gain a foothold in NY State GOP politics, is leading the McCain campaign here.