Pat Nixon

Is she the drunk?

Yes.

She contributed nothing. Her husband was violent and she learned early in the marriage to keep her mouth shut and smile wanly.

Pat and Dick were in Dallas the day Kennedy was killed. Need I say more?

There's quite a bit of interesting stuff about her at the Nixon Library and Birthplace Museum.

Seemed a rather tragic figure. She worked her whole life and in an unguarded moment, said to Gloria Steinem during an interview:

"As she told the writer Gloria Steinem during the 1968 presidential campaign, "I never had time to think about things like that—who I wanted to be, or who I admired, or to have ideas. I never had time to dream about being anyone else. I had to work."

I'm guessing she was a drunk because her husband was fucking Bebe Rebozo and not her.

Pat is such an unfortunate-sounding [shortened] name for a woman.

Pat was never the same when they finally told her, her husband didn't win Massachusetts.

It wasn't her real name--she was born Thelma Ryan. She was called "Pat" by her family (supposedly because she was born close to St. Patrick's Day), and later she had her name changed to "Patricia" (or at least that's what it says on her tombstone). Haldeman and Ehrlichman used to refer to her snidely as "Thelma" behind her back because they didn't like her.

Her comments about having no aspirations was not true--in college, and as a young adult, she wanted to be an actress. She and Nixon met doing a community play together. She became (briefly) an elementary-school teacher before she had children.

She was the most liked First Lady, supposedly, bu the White House staff--she was the friendliest to them and the most genuinely concerned with their own lives.

She drank a lot, but she was at least a highly functioning drunk. Betty Ford would supposedly just become inert on the sofa when she was drunk.

When do the rest of stop paying off your debt??

Beautiful Inaugural gown.....

Did she ever do soft-core lezzie porn?

Miss Kathryn Erbe IS Pat Nixon!

A genuinely great performance: Janis Kelly as a tired, lonely Pat Nixon, trying her best to connect with the Chinese people.

She's great, r15!

She was the FIRST First Lady to come out in support of Abortion Rights

Did Pat ever go out for Girl's Night Out drinks with Betty Ford?

Does anyone recall what caused Richard to comment that Pat's coat was "serviceable?"

Unfortunately SNL has no clips of Madeline Kahn's portrayal of Pat writing in her diary. All I could find was the transcript.

I was a kid during the Nixon era, and I'm still under the impression that the public largely ignored her. She was neither popular like Jackie Kennedy, nor divisive like Nancy Reagan, she was just sort of … there. Poised and dutiful in public, but never controversial, never interesting.

I'm sure that's what Nixon wanted, he knew he had to have a presentable wife to have a career in public, but he was too much of an asshole to let that wife become any sort of public figure in her own right.

Betty Ford sounds way more interesting.

She was great on The Lawrence Welk Show

[quote]r8 Pat is such an unfortunate-sounding [shortened] name for a woman.

[quote]r10 It wasn't her real name--she was born Thelma

Out of the frying pan - -

[quote] I was a kid during the Nixon era, and I'm still under the impression that the public largely ignored her. She was neither popular like Jackie Kennedy,

You are remembering things incorrectly. She was highly popular:

[quote] Pat Nixon was listed on the Gallup Organization's top-ten list of the most admired women fourteen times, from 1959 to 1962 and 1968 to 1979. She was ranked third in 1969, second in 1970 and 1971, and first in 1972. She remained on the top-ten list until 1979, five years after her husband left office

The Gallup poll doesn't mean much. I suspect if one reviewed the data, the First Lady was always in the top 10 during those years. If Pat Nixon was known for anything during those years, it was her Republican cloth coats and her stand-by-your-man attitude as her husband was shown to the nation, in fact, to be a crook. Being a supportive wife was demanded in those years and Pat did as was expected. Even if he did beat her.

And she had little competition for a spot in the Top 10. How many female governors were there in the 1960's? How many female Senators? Few, if any at all.

So I proved you wrong with data from the Gallup poll, and now you are saying that somehow the Gallup Poll is wrong, and that your memory of how things were when you were a child is somehow more reliable!

You are full of bullshit!

BLOCKED!

You proved nothing.

[quote]How was Pat Nixon as FLOTUS?

She sounded like a bore. At least Betty drank and Nancy Reagan gave great blowjobs.

Pat was the only first lady in the 20th century to come from a poor, working-class family. The low-ranking workers in the White House said she was kinder and more considerate than other FLOTUS they dealt with. Unfortunately she was painfully shy in public, making her seem cold and aloof. She was called "Plastic Pat" by her husband's critics.

She had to endure a lot of abuse as the spouse of the widely hated Nixon.

I thought she was lovely and gracious, under the circumstances.

R27, just so you know... R26 and R21 are not the same person.

Do you feel stupid now?

She did a lot of goodwill tours of Africa when Tricky was president --visiting unfortunate but cute children, that sort of thing. I think she probably just wanted to get out of the house and get away from Nixon, although she was very loyal to him during the watergate scandal.

She married Milhous because he had more prospects than her other boyfriends (he drove her and the others on their dates). After working her way through school and helping her sibs do likewise, she wanted to have a settled, boring life as a housewife, and occasionally go shopping with her daughters. She hated politics and campaigning. I know people who used to see her shopping with her ugly daughters at Woodward & Lothrop--the upper middle brow DC department store---she looked happy on those occasions.

She chain smoked and spent her married life being ignored by Nixon. Lady Bird and Jackie built lives for themselves, but she never really did. Nixon would ignore her in their post-WH life. Betty Ford became her own person, Rosalynn was her own person and Nancy was too selfish to be anything else. One can only hope that Pat had affairs--maybe something discreet with a secret service agent. At least she didn't have ugly bangs, fairy toast or droopy tits that she featured in her gowns.

Pat is a cool name for a woman.

And re the Nixons' marriage, love is a battlefield.

meh

nancy gave great blow jobs jackie was glamorous lady bird was a tough bird but grew great bluebells roslyn was good and unpretentious betty made great cocktails and didn't give a fuck

pat....she wore a nice republican cloth coat and produced two cunty daughters

" Lady Bird and Jackie built lives for themselves, but she never really did. "

Well most First Ladies outlive their husbands by a considerable margin, which gives them the chance to get out from under their husband's thumb and be their own person at last. Pat had the bad luck to predecease the old SOB by a year.

I think she was the most reluctant First Lady in my lifetime.

reluctant to do what?

give blow jobs?

plant bluebells?

wear designer dresses?

drink?

do good works?

[quote] At least she didn't have ugly bangs, fairy toast or droopy tits that she featured in her gowns.

I'll be bringing ALL of those to the White House soon!

She hated public life--Nixon once said she was happiest walking on an isolated beach.

She was a sex freak. She loved double anal and pegging Dick in the Oval Office.

Jane Curtin as Pat

zzzzzzz

"Do you think Pat Nixon got FUCKED in this hotel room?"

"Well, I don't know — "

"It's called the PRESIDENTIAL SUITE, isn't it?'

"Yes, but — '

"I bet she did! Call the manager and ASK HIM!"

"I can't do that! Pat Nixon was a stroke victim!"

A Hollywood film about her life would be very interesting and worthwhile in my opinion. It is not just Jackie Kennedy of the first ladies who deserve the high quality biopic treatment by Hollywood.

^^ Yes, I'm sure M would be wonderful playing her.

Indeed she would or Glenn or Julianne Moore ! r46

The moment has passed, but Barbara Billingsley would have been perfect to play Pat Nixon.

Did Pat speak jive like Barbara?

[quote]Did Pat speak jive like Barbara?

No -- she had to have Mamie translate for her.

[quote] I think she was the most reluctant First Lady in my lifetime.

Not anymore