Campaigns in Troubled Waters
By GAIL COLLINS
NYT
SARASOTA, Fla.
“I have lived the American dream,” said Rick Scott, an extremely wealthy candidate for governor, to a dinner crowd of Republicans at the Sarasota Yacht Club.
This week in Florida, I heard two stupendously rich men — one a billionaire — tell rooms full of voters that they lived the American dream. Didn’t the American dream used to be having a house of your own with a nice yard? When did it evolve into owning your own $9.2 million mansion? Isn’t this putting a little too much pressure on the nation, dream-wise?
Scott’s talk went into great detail about his humble beginnings, when his mom “took in ironing so we could get groceries.” This kind of rags-to-riches saga is supposed to offer encouragement to the struggling masses. But, really, when you are telling the story at a yacht club it just sounds like bragging.
My second question is how yachts manage to keep horning into the political picture. Lately, we’ve had a controversy over whether John Kerry was trying to avoid Massachusetts taxes on his new $7 million yacht by docking it in Rhode Island. Inquiring minds in Connecticut are going to want to know why the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Tom Foley, has his 100-foot yacht registered in the Marshall Islands. The whole world wants to know why the yacht owned by Linda McMahon, the U.S. Senate nominee in Connecticut, is named Sexy Bitch.
(More here.)
NYT
SARASOTA, Fla.
“I have lived the American dream,” said Rick Scott, an extremely wealthy candidate for governor, to a dinner crowd of Republicans at the Sarasota Yacht Club.
This week in Florida, I heard two stupendously rich men — one a billionaire — tell rooms full of voters that they lived the American dream. Didn’t the American dream used to be having a house of your own with a nice yard? When did it evolve into owning your own $9.2 million mansion? Isn’t this putting a little too much pressure on the nation, dream-wise?
Scott’s talk went into great detail about his humble beginnings, when his mom “took in ironing so we could get groceries.” This kind of rags-to-riches saga is supposed to offer encouragement to the struggling masses. But, really, when you are telling the story at a yacht club it just sounds like bragging.
My second question is how yachts manage to keep horning into the political picture. Lately, we’ve had a controversy over whether John Kerry was trying to avoid Massachusetts taxes on his new $7 million yacht by docking it in Rhode Island. Inquiring minds in Connecticut are going to want to know why the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Tom Foley, has his 100-foot yacht registered in the Marshall Islands. The whole world wants to know why the yacht owned by Linda McMahon, the U.S. Senate nominee in Connecticut, is named Sexy Bitch.
(More here.)
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