Dollar Bill On Why Hart Dropped Out in 1988
This is an
interesting post from Bill Bradley, who was in a position to know. I always liked Bradley from his days with the Knicks, and he seems to be pretty honest on his blog. When discussing the story as it's commonly written, Bradley shows a curious focus on credentialism in this paragraph:
The story goes, and it’s perfectly encapsulated in that column linked to above, that Hart, the former U.S. senator from Colorado and then undisputed frontrunner for the presidency of the United States, who has a doctorate from Oxford, unaccountably decided to deal with rumors of womanizing by challenging the press to follow him around. The press, not in the interest of salaciousness but in the best spirit of enterprise journalism, thereupon took him up on that challenge and, through dint of investigative reporting, found him with former Miss South Carolina Donna Rice (a Phi Beta Kappa, let it be noted), and drove the arrogant politician from the race. Leaving us, as it happens, with, um, George Bush I. And then after the one-term failure of the first Bush presidency, Bill Clinton, who in retrospect, with all due respect to the former president, makes Hart look like a choirboy. (Boldface added)
You can see how it is; Donna Rice wasn't just a bimbo, she was a bimbo with a Phi Beta Kappa key. And of course Gary Hart would have beaten Bush I; he has a doctorate from Oxford. Still, interesting stuff from somebody who lived it.
