The two Democratic presidents elected since 1964 share the Confederate Rule.
They share something else: the Token Child.
Carter and Clinton each had one daughter.
This was critical. Hillary wrote “It Takes a Village” and she has been a professionaql advisor on motherhood and children’s right from the word go.
I have forgotten everybody’s first names, but the Carters wanted to be a plain couple from Plains, Georgia, and the image would have been hard to maintain if they hadn’t had their one girl.
Carter made it clear that HIS daughter was going to go the Washington, DC public schools.
I remember driving by a public school in DC where a single little blond girl was standing there at recess between two men standing beside her in coats and ties. I do not know whether that was Amy (?) Carter, the Carters’ token daughter, but I can’t imagine who else it could have been.
She didn’t look like she was having much fun.
The Carter’s token daughter ended up being a nutcase (takes one to know one, you know). She became one of the maybe two girls in America who for years dyed her blond hair black and I haven’t heard of her since.
But she served her purpose.
The Clinton’s token child seems to have come out all right, though I have no special info on her. Last I heard she was living the high life that her father’s friends bring but, praise the girl, she hasn’t slid into drugs or anything.
I believe she’s blond, too, b ut she hasn’t dyed her hair.
So if the Democrats are looking for a winner next time, they need a candidate from the Old Confederacy who has the required one child.
Hillary is a senator from New York.
#1 by Shari on 02/10/2006 - 7:19 pm
Actually I think that Amy Carter had brothers who were quite a bit older. They weren’t there for the photos. I’ve wondered when the last time the president had boys. I know Bush Sr. did but they were safely grownup, or so we thought. Nixon and Johnson had daughters too.
#2 by Elizabeth on 02/11/2006 - 3:57 pm
The Eisenhowers had one son, but he was an adult in ’52. JFK had one
son and one daughter (at least in wedlock), but the son was born after
his election, and both were pre-schoolers when he died.
The Fords had two or three sons as well as the one daughter, but,
of course, he wasn’t elected.
I saw Amy Carter once when she was a college student visiting D.C. I
was on the Metro one day when I saw a group of college students:
I got a close look at one of the girls and thought “Gee, she looks
just like Amy Carter with her hair dyed black.” I was really surprised
when I found out it was Amy Carter.
(I refuse to dye my hair blonde. My coloring’s all wrong for it and,
besides, I’m in the age range when a lot of brunettes do it to “hide”
the grey. They might as well wear signs!)