Sunday, January 02, 2011

Changing Times--Remembering Happy

Happy is still around, I found as I checked her wikipedia entry.  Nelson Rockefeller's divorce of his first wife, Happy's divorce of her husband, and their quick remarriage to each other, meaning the disruption of the lives of a bunch of children, all paved the way for our modern disaster: the nomination of Goldwater in 1964 instead of Rocky, the rise of Reagan to prominence with the "speech", Reagan's election in 1980, and the setting of the bar so low as to permit a charming demagogue to dream of the Presidency.  (I know, I might be exaggerating, but just a tad.)

I recall it to mind because of the NYTimes article on the new governor, Mr. Cuomo, and his live-in girlfriend, Sandra Lee, of whom I'd never heard.  What was a scandal in 1962 is totally unremarkable in 2011; 49 years do make a difference.

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