Mrs. Romney as "Lovey Howell" is a Compliment

Jack E. Kemp

In Eric Ericson's article "The Meme War We Must Win," http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2012/04/18/the-meme-war-we-must-win/  about the device of making Republican presidential candidates look either stiff or buffoonish, he quotes Democrat strategist Paul Begala as referring to Mitt Romney as being a "Thurston Howell III."

Of course, Obama, with his dog eating could be referred to as "Thurston Howl III," but I digress. Let me digress some more. You know what would make a great bumper sticker? Who do you want running the country? Thurston Howell III or Gilligan?

All this Gilligan's Island talk reminded me of the actress Natalie Schafer who portrayed Mrs. Lovey Howell and the background story shown in the 2001 television program "Surviving Gilligan's Island." In that show, one of the most dramatic scenes I've ever witnessed on television occurred. E.J. Peaker, portraying the real Natalie Schafer, was talking with a younger woman, possibly the Dawn Wells character (Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island) concerning something the younger woman was afraid to do. On a balcony in New York, Natalie Schafer, with her back to the camera, opened her tailored suit and bared her chest to courageously reveal that she was the survivor of a radical mastectomy - as is Mrs. Romney. http://old.post-gazette.com/tv/20011013owen1013fnp3.asp

Although Mitt Romney is a good deal more sophisticated then the cartoon-like Thurston Howell III, I'll take Thurston and Lovey Howell over the current occupants of the White House, any day.