Thursday Open Thread [12.29.11]
Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson (R), who was Michele Bachmann’s state campaign chairman, endorsed Ron Paul for the Republican presidential nomination, the Washington Post reports. He did not tell Bachmann of his decision until he was en route to the Paul rally. That must hurt.
The Daily Mail in the UK gives us a preview of a new Richard Nixon biography, titled “Nixon’s Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story of America’s Most Troubled President” by Don Fulsom.
“A new biography by Don Fulsom, a veteran Washington reporter who covered the Nixon years, suggests the 37th U.S. President had a serious drinking problem, beat his wife and — by the time he was inaugurated in 1969 — had links going back two decades to the Mafia, including with New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello, then America’s most powerful mobster.”
“Yet the most extraordinary claim is that the homophobic Nixon may have been gay himself. If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behavior of a notoriously secretive politician.”
I would not be the least surprised. Nixon had very strict Quaker parents, and undoubtedly he was taught to hate homosexuality, and if he was gay, then he was taught to hate himself. And people who hate themselves then to hate everyone else and take out their anger on them.
A new InsiderAdvantage poll in Iowa has Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul each at 17% support. They are followed by Rick Santorum at 13%, Michele Bachmann at 12%, Rick Perry at 11% and Jon Huntsman at 3%.
Finally, our quote of the day:
“Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source,” – Governor Rick Perry.
That deserves a Picard Facepalm.
I had Don Fulsom as a professor this last semester! Should be an interesting book.
A couple of gay friends of mine have long speculated that Nixon was gay. This book ought to be interesting.
Also — make sure this gets bookmarked in your Reference Folders: Debunkatron. Unlike snopes.com, this seems focused on science and not necessarily on the crazy email memes. No idea how accurate this is.
And Will Bunch wins the news day with the best headline on the Santorum surge.
In Iowa.
Some unnamed copy editor gets the hedline credit. Nitpicker over at DP predicted Republicans would like his consistency.
Like his consistency…heck no….it’s the nanosecond attention span of Americans these days, who heard he went hunting w/ Iowans. It ain’t over til it’s over, as Pres. Obama will surely agree.
Forgot to mention that today is the day to transfer any domains you have parked over at GoDaddy to someplace else in protest of their stand on SOPA.
JC: It was a reference to his Google problem.