Beauty and the Beast

Julie Nixon Eisenhower has reached the limit on individual donations to a presidential candidate: She has given $2,300 to… the Obama campaign. Lisa Schiffren is “dismayed,” but she knows why Julie is such an aberration from the fine example of rectitude set by her father. It’s because she looks nothing like her father. And it’s because Julie looks 59 years old — which, by an amazing coincidence, she is.

If you need proof, just look at Tricia: She doesn’t look a day older than she did in 1974 — and she’s supporting John McCain (bolds mine).

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.

And by the way: If you’re wondering about that recent photograph of Tricia — like, where it is, and is there a link we can click, maybe? — well, beats the heck out of me. If you find out, let me know.

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